lisaluvsliterature's Reviews (4.19k)

I do love this author’s books, and this one was another winner! The small town was so cute, and I loved so much about it. Lots of fun characters to get to know, plus a villain that was so easy to hate, because he had no reason to continue being such a butthead! The names, well at least Noel, messed me up at first, because Noel has just always been a female name for me. But once I realized Noel was our male love interest I was good. I loved how his nickname for Parker, also a male name usually for me, was Peter. These two definitely had chemistry, and the. history the more we learned about it was so sweet and so perfect!

Both characters had sad parent stories, but both also had a wonderful support with either Parker’s mom or Noel’s grandmother. Those two ladies were a whole part of the story that I adored as well! Then there was Axel, Parker’s business partner and best friend at the start. He was a wonderful part of the story too.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m not the biggest fan of movie star romances, but Noel wasn’t like the type of character that is all about whining about how terrible his life is. No, he was doing what he loved. So coming home was definitely a big deal for him, but he learned a lot once he got there. What I loved about this story was that there was the fact that neither wanted to pressure the other again about staying or going, so in a way it could be considered a miscommunication. However, the way this was done was so realistic for me, and I could totally see it happening, and it wasn’t just drama for drama’s sake. I loved how in the end the two of them kind of came to the same conclusions separately, well with some help from family, friends, etc. So getting back together in the end was a fun and sweet scene. There was the usual steamy bits I expect and enjoy from the author. All in all I loved it. I did feel at times the story was a little slow for me, but overall it was a great small town, second chance romance!

Really hard to understand that the main character would do some of the things she did.  And she wasn't likable in how she acted in some cases, like with someone who really was a friend.

I’ve wanted to read this author for a while, and with my own very first cruise planned for this summer, I thought what a fun book to get started with! There was a lot of fun in this story. I enjoyed the characters relationships with each other. Ruby has some great friends, and her family members were fun to spend time with as well. The whole going to church to meet a guy for her friend Sam was hilarious! Besides knowing from the blurb that Ruby was being tricked into a singles cruise by her friend, it was obvious something was up when her friend was asking her how she would describe herself in a dating app bio. Although honestly I think her friend did a good job with what she said.

So many of the activities the singles group had going were ones that made me cringe and are part of the reason my introverted self would not want to be a part of those things. It was so realistic though for me, to see how her friend Sam kind of left her behind in finding her own perfect guy. That’s happened to me most of my life. My friends find a guy, then I get left behind, not even included as a third wheel. Cameron was a pretty nice guy and while we knew that Ruby had reasons and didn’t want to date anyone, we didn’t know the specifics, so I got a little irritated with her as she kept pushing him away. When we finally did get her reasoning, I could see how it made sense. However I was glad to see that she could see how much she was hurting him and it made her look at her reasons after finally sharing them with Sam. And honestly, as great as Cameron was, there wasn’t a ton of romance involved on his end either, other than doing lots of things to help her out. This is an instance where I think if we’d gotten half the book from his POV it could have made up for that.

Even though I’m a dog person, I do adore the stories with cats that are such a big part of someone’s life, just like my dogs are for me. So I loved their cat, and how it went to the bookstore for work with her! And the nude beach scene was funny, I did appreciate that! However, the part where she didn’t know about morning wood? That was a little unbelievable if she’d been in a serious relationship or had sex before. Especially at her age, and her talk about how a vibrator was a good enough stand-in for a man. I have no problem with that, just doesn’t sync up with not knowing that. Her jokes about “little Cameron” were funny though, and Frou Frou, those parts did keep me giggling.

I’m not saying that I haven’t enjoyed the romantic suspense series that Samantha Young has been writing the last few years. But, this book, this is the type of story that made me fall in love with her writing and become an auto-buy/reader. The sports romance aspect is a little different, but the large family of actual relatives, friends, and found family all coming together to rally around the characters was perfection. The main characters are a whole new world, not at all cookie cutters of their parents from the original series, but we also get to see how those characters molded and shaped them, and how those original characters fit into the world when it isn’t their personal story anymore.

Beth is someone that I could totally connect with. Her fear of failure, how one thing going wrong or being unknown could send her spiraling into how then everything was going to fail and it was all her fault, boy do I know those moments. While I pretty much always had those moments when I was alone, I could put on the “I’m okay” face and keep the spiraling from happening around other people, Beth had some moments where it hit her when other people were around. She did her best to get somewhere alone to handle it though.

Callan was a grumpy almost enemy. Because of how the budding relationship between the two of them had ended abruptly, it fed into the way other people had made him feel inferior due to his background, and the fact that Beth came from a wealthy well-known family didn’t help. Even if she didn’t think that way, and it wasn’t why exactly she stepped away from him, it totally came across that way. Both of them thought they knew the other one well, but when the meet up again as adults they realize that they never did really know the other one.

Their enemies to lovers/second chance romance storyline was wonderful. I loved how Callan’s teammates were instantly in love with her, friend-love that is. I loved how Beth made friends with the women she ran into in the mornings coming out with Callan after one night stands. I mean except one, the one Callan knew he probably shouldn’t have taken home in the first place.

All the steaminess that Young knows how to write was in the book. But so much emotion, again as she knows how to write, fit in seamlessly and filled the story out. There was such wonderful handling of Beth’s panic attacks and how she handled them, or started to finally work to get them figured out and shared with those who cared about her the most so they could be there for her and understand. Yes, there was even a couple moments when both Beth and Callan had that thought that normally adds unnecessary and in my opinion unrealistic drams, maybe the other would be better off without them because of the issues that came from being together. But in this case, both of them had those thoughts and then worked through them. Either with family or even just taking the time to think it over and then come out and talk about it with each other.

A wonderful return to one of my all time favorite fictional worlds, the one that first got me intrigued with all things Scottish. And after reading the author’s notes, I guess I have another author, Catherine Cowles, to thank for convincing her to jump back and bring us these stories.

Another one to mark off my Beat the Backlist Challenge! I had about a week before I needed to have another review book read, so I first tried one of the books that ended up on my DNF list, and then I picked this one up and was hooked and sped through the fun romantic romp by one of my favorite authors. I loved the crazy situation of Bailey sneaking aboard the yacht her former company had booked for a all staff trip. And then we had Rhett, her former boss, who she felt had unfairly fired her, I mean he had, instead of investigating what was brought to him, he just went with his first instinct. It had only been about 2 weeks before the trip, so yeah, I get why she felt she deserved to go. The two of them got left behind at one of the stops when a storm suddenly showed up. They were stranded on the island for about 2 days alone. It was definitely a unique forced proximity type of romance. As usual the author brought the humor, the steam, and the wonderful family and friends I’m used to and always love in her stories. And I like the way the whole thing shook out in the end to get our HEA. 

I am a huge Buffy fan. I mean my email address is still my very first spelling of Buffywnabe. It was fun to be back in the world as it was kind of left at the end of the show with all the many slayers in our world. We also got to look into another dimension/world where things hadn’t gone quite the same. Some of our favorite characters were dead in that world, or with only one slayer – and that slayer was Cordelia! So there was a lot of fun to this story. My only complaint is a personal preference. I know this was supposed to be like a play, but the times when there were noises with no talking, obviously fighting or making out – lips smacking noises, I didn’t need a lot of that. Otherwise, it was fun!

I'm hoping it's just this book and not the author because I've wanted to read their books for a while.  It was kind of repetitive with the small town stuff just in one scene, like being hit over and over the head that this is a small town with how the people acted as well as how his thoughts were going over and over as if to point it out.  Also still not my type of read with a celebrity saying boo hoo about their life.

Story was okay, but pretty standard for how people behaved, etc.  And there was a lot of giggling and winking that was out of place to me or just seemed constantly happening.  Just wasn't for me.

Okay, between the crazy title and the even wilder cover picture, I knew I was in for quite the ride with this one, and I was NOT disappointed! I’m new to these types of alien romances/science fiction romances, just started getting my feet wet with the Ice Planet Barbarian series in the past couple years. I wasn’t sure if I’d read this one, but when the publisher reached out with a widget for me to download, I couldn’t pass it up.

First just the part at the beginning where she was doing her job on Earth resonated with my little former science teacher heart. Not to mention that she was studying meerkats, because I can go watch them at the zoo forever, and so it was fun to hear some of the things she was watching them do. Jump to when she wakes up on the spaceship and suddenly I was definitely put in mind of Dixon’s IPB series. Of course then things got their big mix up. The crash to this planet, finding out what this planet is for, all was it’s own wild and wacky part of the storyline!

Of course the author had to figure out a way they could all communicate with each other, and so there is a solution, not sure if I completely understood it, it happened so fast with the lion I might need to go back and reread to pick up some details. Because this first read through was all about the story. There was so much to this story, more than what it seems you might have. Even the aliens who had abducted Dory had a lot more going on at all times than they seemed.

I also have to say that the steam level in this was off the charts! While again it is hard to find the alien she is on the cover with attractive, you have to add in the lust/mating serum that she, Sol, and Lok were all shot with. And their tails. Dang. I see this author has similar types of stories out there already that I’ll have to probably check out. And I see that this is listed as part one of a series, so I’m wondering if the next person’s story will be the couple that the original aliens mated towards the end of the story.

The only issue that I had a little trouble with was the different names for things. Yes, I know it made sense that Sol and Lok’s people had their own names for the dinosaurs and other creatures and plants. But when the author would use those names as Dory thinking both of them in the same paragraph it was a bit confusing for me as the reader. So a very tiny issue really.

Oh yeah, the rom-com part of the title not only comes from the banter and mood of the story, but the fact that the aliens who had kidnapped Dory had used mating “guidebooks” to help get her to fall for Sol and Lok. These guidebooks were basically romance novels, or one guide to writing romance novels. One of the main rules they used to get them together was the one bed trope, literally houses with second stories that were just one bedroom with one huge bed.

If you’re looking for a steamy romp with aliens, and are a fan of the Ice Planet Barbarians series, this book is for you!

I have been wanting to read this author for so long, and finally got approved for an egalley last year. And, I have to hang my head in shame, because I FORGOT to write it on my blog review calendar and didn’t get to it before it was published! Then I didn’t think about it for some reason until recently and so I immediately put it on my review calendar in between books being published this month so I could get it read. I’m so glad I did, because I really enjoyed it!

I have to say this story “hooked” me, had to go to a play on words with the theme of fishing in the story, lol. I loved all the characters, both Maren and Joe, their families, their friends, and even the townspeople. Joe’s kids, oh my gosh, I adored them so much. That added aspect of the story was so good, so much emotion, and so sweet as well. Little Lucy’s autism was something that totally proved Maren was perfect for Joe. I wanted to punch Anders and Lucy’s mom so much at the end! Maren’s brother, another person I wanted to punch. However, I feel like his behavior was definitely realistic for a brother. Although when Anders called him out for how he picked on his sister, oh my gosh, another bit of perfection, from the mouth of babes!

I liked Maren’s friends too, and know that I have their books on my TBR on Goodreads already, so now I really want to go back and read those books! I don’t think her brother Liam has a book? Although I would have read that too! But maybe he doesn’t have one because if he had his own HEA and had done his emotional growth already, he wouldn’t have treated Maren like he did. In the end he did figure it out though, and I liked the way the author filled in that part of the story.

The creepy stalkerish guy, well I thought that was going to go in a bit of a different direction, maybe add more of a dangerous bit of drama to the story. But it didn’t, so in a way I wasn’t completely satisfied with how that played out? Although I like how Maren decided to handle him at the end, that was perfect, even if I wonder if a guy like that would have taken all that as easily as he did. But I guess being in a public place may have helped too.

My first book by this author, and now I know why I wanted so badly to read a book by her, as well as why others highly recommended her books. I think I have one of the YA titles in my school library, and I will definitely want to make sure I get them all for my students who are romance readers!