Fiction | Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™

SUMMER OF NO ATTACHMENTS by Lori Foster

August 26, 2021

From the publisher:

Summer flings with no strings mean nobody gets hurt.

At least, that was the plan…

After putting the brakes on her dead-end relationship, local veterinarian Ivey Anders is ready to soak up this summer on her own terms. The way she sees it, no dating means no disappointment.

Why complicate life with anything long-term? But when she meets Corbin Meyer—and his troubled young son, Justin—Ivey’s no-strings strategy threatens to unravel before she can put it into practice.

Trust doesn’t come easy for Ivey’s best friend, Hope Mage, a veterinary-clinic assistant who’s affected by an incident that’s colored every relationship she’s had. Though Hope’s happy for Ivey, she can’t quite open her own heart to the possibility of love. Not just yet… Maybe not ever. Soon, however, she’s faced with a dilemma—Corbin’s older brother, Lang. He’s charming, he’s kind…and he may just be the reason Hope needs to finally tear down her walls.

And as the sweet summer months unspool, the two friends discover love won’t give up on them so easily.

This is a standalone double romance with a lot of heart. The main romance is Ivey’s; after two fairly uneventful and boring years, Ivey dumps the man who didn’t thrill her. A successful veterinarian, she decides she’d rather be single than be with someone who does nothing for her. He’s not a bad guy, just uninterested in her and frankly, she’s not too interested in him either. Until she breaks up with him – then he decides maybe they should be together but she isn’t having any part of it.

Corbin is a newcomer to this small town, and very good looking. He comes with a teenage son, and soon his older brother Lang comes to stay. Ivey and Corbin have some chemistry, which gets her to rethink her idea of a summer with no attachments. Corbin just learned he had a son when an old girlfriend drops him off and says adios. He is shocked, but happy, and is trying hard to build a relationship with his son.

Ivey’s vet assistant, Hope, is also her best friend. Hope is extremely shy, especially around men, because of an issue with her sister’s fiancé. But for some reason, Corbin’s brother appeals to her. He treats her with such kindness she can’t help but be drawn to him. Ivey is so happy for her friend as she is finally coming out of her shell.

Both romances work well here, and there is enough drama and laughter to keep the pages turning. Another terrific read from one of my favorite authors.

8/2021 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

SUMMER OF NO ATTACHMENTS by Lori Foster. HQN; Original edition (June 22, 2021). ISBN: 978-1335459893. 336 pages.

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THE DATING PLAYBOOK by Farrah Rochon

August 25, 2021

The Rajes, Book 3

From the publisher:

When a personal trainer agrees to fake date her client, all rules are out the window in this “fun, heartfelt, and totally relatable” romantic comedy (Abby Jimenez, NYT bestselling author of Life’s Too Short).

When it comes to personal training, Taylor Powell kicks serious butt. Unfortunately, her bills are piling up, rent is due, and the money situation is dire. Taylor needs more than the support of her new best friends, Samiah and London. She needs a miracle.

And Jamar Dixon might just be it. The oh-so-fine former footballer wants back into the NFL, and he wants Taylor to train him. There’s just one catch—no one can know what they’re doing. But when they’re accidentally outed as a couple, Taylor’s game plan is turned completely upside down. Is Jamar just playing to win . . . or is he playing for keeps?

PopSugar: Best Summer Reads of 2021
BookBub: Best Romance Books of Summer
Washington Post: Romance Novels to Read This Summer
Oprah Daily: Most Anticipated Romances of 2021

This is the second book of a no-named series, although it works well as a standalone, too. Although I loved the first book so much, I shouldn’t even tell you that, but if you can, please go read The Boyfriend Project. It made my best books of the year list for 2020.

This book has an added bonus for me; it’s a sports romance, which I love. Jamar has been booted from the NFL after his first year due to a serious injury. None of the teams want to take a chance on him, despite his surgeon’s clearing him to play. Determined to get back to the sport he loves, but wanting to avoid publicity about it, he decides to find a trainer to work with him from outside the NFL bubble. Jamar has seen Taylor’s boot camp style workouts online and besides thinking she’s pretty hot, thinks she is just the woman who can kick his butt back to the NFL. He shows up at one of her popup classes and impresses her when he can do one armed burpees. They chat after, and eventually he talks her into being his personal trainer.

Taylor loves what she does, but the business end of things sucks. She is losing money hand over fist and desperately needs an infusion of cash to pay her bills. She hasn’t gotten a couple of jobs she really wanted because she never went to college. It becomes apparent fairly quickly that something is up about that.

These characters were so well developed that I couldn’t help but care about them. Taylor has all kinds of family drama and Jamar has some serious guilt going on in his backstory. Even though they agree that they cannot be romantically involved, they end up in a fake relationship for the media attention. Which of course eventually turns into a hot romance.

I loved this story and these characters and I can’t wait for the next book in this series! Just wish it had a name.

8/2021 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

THE DATING PLAYBOOK by Farrah Rochon. Forever (August 17, 2021). ISBN: 978-1538716670. 384 pages.

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HITCHED TO THE GUNSLINGER by Michelle McLean

August 24, 2021

Gunslinger, Book 1

Gray “Quick Shot” Woodson is the fastest gun west of the Mississippi. Unfortunately, he’s ready to hang up his hat. Sure, being notorious has its perks. But the nomadic lifestyle―and people always tryin’ to kill you―gets old real fast.

Now he just wants to find a place to retire so he can spend his days the way the good Lord intended. Staring at the sunset. And napping.

When his stubborn horse drags him into a hole-in-the-wall town called Desolation, something about the place calls to Gray, and he figures he might actually have a shot at a sleepy retirement.

His optimism lasts about a minute and a half.

Soon he finds himself embroiled in a town vendetta and married to a woman named Mercy. Who, judging by her aggravating personality, doesn’t know the meaning of her own name. In fact, she’s downright impossible.

But dang it if his wife isn’t irresistible. If only she’d stop trying to steal his guns to go after the bad guys herself.

There goes his peace and quiet…

This was a very different read for me. It’s an historical cowboy romance, and I really loved it!

Gray is a gunslinger who has the reputation of being unstoppable, with a trail of dead bodies behind him to prove it. Turns out he “accidentally” got into it when he was defending himself. He learned to shoot as a child, and is quite skilled, but he is really tired of people trying to kill him just for the prestige of it.

Gray ends up in the little town of Desolation, where he meets Mercy. She offers him a place to sleep and meals if he will help her with one of her neighbors. It seems the man is trying every which way to get his hands on the property she just inherited when her father passed away. He tries proposing, threatening, offering money, but she doesn’t want to sell. Gray agrees to basically be her bodyguard, but when push comes to shove, Mercy blurts out that he is her fiancé, and the fake romance takes off.

Gray is a bit of a curmudgeon, and all he is really interested in is food and napping, but Mercy is a terrible cook and his naps keep getting interrupted. When he ends up shooting the gun out Mercy’s nemesis’s hand, the whole town is intrigued. But the sheriff is scared and takes off in the middle of the night. Gray is offered the position, which he finds hilarious as he’s always been on the wrong side of the law but eventually he takes it. And he soon learns what it means to be accepted, by a woman and a town.

Mercy and Gray marry, and he soon learns that caring about people may be dangerous to his health. Things come to a head with a shootout in the streets and of course, the happy ending. This was a really fun read, a hot romance, and I couldn’t put it down. Really looking forward to the next book in this series!

8/2021 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

HITCHED TO THE GUNSLINGER by Michelle McLean. Entangled: Amara (August 24, 2021). ISBN: 978-1649370228. 1330 pages.

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PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA by Jenn McKinlay

August 23, 2021

From the publisher:

A thirty-year-old woman retraces her gap year through Ireland, France, and Italy to find love—and herself—in this hilarious and heartfelt novel.

It’s been seven years since Chelsea Martin embarked on her yearlong postcollege European adventure. Since then, she’s lost her mother to cancer and watched her sister marry twice, while Chelsea’s thrown herself into work, becoming one of the most talented fundraisers for the American Cancer Coalition, and with the exception of one annoyingly competent coworker, Jason Knightley, her status as most successful moneymaker is unquestioned.

When her introverted mathematician father announces he’s getting remarried, Chelsea is forced to acknowledge that her life stopped after her mother died and that the last time she can remember being happy, in love, or enjoying her life was on her year abroad. Inspired to retrace her steps—to find Colin in Ireland, Jean Claude in France, and Marcelino in Italy—Chelsea hopes that one of these three men who stole her heart so many years ago can help her find it again.

From the start of her journey nothing goes as planned, but as Chelsea reconnects with her old self, she also finds love in the very last place she expected.

One of Popsugar’s Best New Books for Summer 2020

I recently read this author’s newest book, Wait for It, which I liked a lot so I poked around my Kindle and found this book that somehow I missed last year. Have I mentioned that I have over 5000 books on my Kindle? So easy for stuff to get lost. I try and keep it organized as best as I can, but sometimes books fall through the cracks. As this one did.

Chelsea has had a really hard time managing her grief after her mother’s death from pancreatic cancer. It’s been several years and she is still mired in it. When her father announces he is remarrying, she doesn’t handle it well, to say the least. Her family points out that she has lost her joy and she decides the best way to find her old self again is to return to Europe.

Seven years earlier Chelsea had taken a gap year and worked in several different countries in Europe, before being called home when her mother became ill. She fell in love three times; in Ireland, Paris, and Italy. She hasn’t been able to get in touch with any of the men other than Marcellino from Italy, but she decides to take a leave of absence from her job and see if she can find her joy with these men.

It’s an interesting trip, especially when her nemesis from work shows up. Jason is helping on a big account but she never expected him to show up in person. They don’t get along at all and have very different working styles. But come together they must for this new client.

Meanwhile, her European romances are not at all what she was expecting, but luckily, Jason is helpful with all that. Much to her surprise, Chelsea realizes he is not the bad guy she thought he was.

This is an enemies-to-lovers romance and a very good one. There is a lot of humor here, as well as bits that made me cry, or as they say, it has all the feels. Highly recommend!

8/2021 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA by Jenn McKinlay. Berkley (July 21, 2020). ISBN: 978-0593101353. 352 pages.

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A DOCTOR FOR THE COWBOY by Amy Andrews

August 22, 2021

American Extreme Bull Riders Tour, Book 4

Cocky, young Aussie bull rider Troy Jensen has been busted down to the pro-circuit. He needs wins and points to get him back into the big league and a shot at being crowned champ but an injury forces him off the circuit and into the arms of the woman fate keeps putting in his path.

The first time local Doc Joss Garrity meets Troy, she’s brandishing a lug wrench. The second time, he’s dragging her delinquent teen son home. The third time, he’s in her ER. How he ends up convalescing at her house she’s not quite sure. But it does make it hard to ignore him and their simmering attraction.

As Troy gets to know Joss, he starts to see a life after bull riding for the first time. But can Joss risk her heart on another man who may not come home one day?

This is a book I got for free through BookBub, which I’ve mentioned several times over the past few years so I won’t go into it again other than to say if you like free or very inexpensive ebooks, check it out.

I was in the mood for a cowboy romance, and this one really fit the bill. Troy is a bull rider and one of the best, until he gets injured. Then he has to work his way back to the top rodeo circuit by winning in the lower ranks. He’s new in town and spots a woman on the side of the road beating the hell out of a tire with a giant wrench. Amused, he stops to help.

Joss is a very independent woman who happens to have a flat tire. She is quite capable of changing a tire, except she can’t loosen the lug nuts. She reluctantly lets Troy help, and they go their separate ways. She is a young widow who lives with her teenage son and her father-in-law.

Joss’s son has entered the surly, bored and looking for trouble stage. Troy catches him rifling through his truck and recognizes something of himself in the teen. He decides the best recourse is to take him home and he is shocked to see the mom is none other than Joss. She is touched that he bothered to bring him home instead of just calling the police.

The next time they run into each other is in the hospital. Joss is a doctor, and Troy ends up in the ER. The next thing he knows, Joss’s father-in-law invites him to stay and recuperate in their home. Joss and Troy have a strong attraction, but she is leery of a cowboy who does such dangerous work and doesn’t want to get involved. But of course she does. Until she sees him at the rodeo and realizes that she just can’t deal with the danger.

Troy is in love with Joss and knows he has to do something to win her back. He makes the ultimate gesture and they find their happy ending, the whole family in fact. For a short book, the character development was surprisingly good. This was a terrific hot cowboy romance and I really enjoyed it. Hoping to read more of this author.

8/2021 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

A DOCTOR FOR THE COWBOY by Amy Andrews. Tule Publishing; 2nd edition (August 8, 2017). ASIN: B072JY9V5K. 180 pages.

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LOVE AT FIRST FIGHT by Mary Jayne Baker

August 21, 2021

From the publisher:

Love-cynic Bridie Morgan is holding a last hurrah to the ‘dating’ stage of her life; shes going on twenty dates in twenty days. If this ‘love’ thing really is a numbers game, then surely she’ll find the one. And if not? Well at least the memory of her date with the Spice Girls’ biggest fan will be enough to put her off for life. She’ll never again wonder what she was missing.

But being love’s biggest skeptic is a challenge in the face of best friend Hattie’s upcoming nuptials. And as Maid of Honour, she really has to give it a chance. That is until Bridie’s lifelong nemesis Ben Kemp returns home to join the wedding party.

Ben Kemp who left her waiting outside their Leaver’s prom, in her nicest dress, alone. Ben Kemp who triggered the sorry state of affairs that has been Bridie’s love life. Ben Kemp the Best Man to her Maid of Honor.

A hilarious and uplifting romantic comedy perfect for fans of 10 Things I Hate About You and The Hating Game.

Bridie has had a lot of bad dates. Really bad dates. She decides to give it one more chance; well, 20 more chances as she attempts 20 dates in 20 days. Then if there are no second dates, she is giving it up and resigning herself to a life of singledom.

Bridie’s best friend Hattie is getting married and Bridie is her maid of honor. Unfortunately, the best man is Ben Kemp. Ben and Bridie were childhood friends and did some fooling around in high school, but were never girlfriend/boyfriend. Ben invited Bridie to a school dance and stood her up, and she has never forgotten or forgiven, so needless to say she is not happy she has to work with him on the wedding.

This is an enemies to lovers story, and a really funny one with lots of laugh out loud moments. Eventually, Ben and Bridie work out their problems and get to their happy ending, but it is the journey that is all the fun. A terrific read from this new-to-me author. I will be looking for more of her books!

8/2021 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

LOVE AT FIRST FIGHT by Mary Jayne Baker. Aria (March 1, 2022). ISBN: 978-1800246164. 352 pages.

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HEARTBREAKER by B. J. Daniels

August 20, 2021

Montana Justice, Book 2

From the publisher:

He’ll risk everything to rescue her…

Ex-military man Thorn Grayson has debts to pay. So when a plane crashes in the mountains near his cabin, he’s hired to find the wreckage—and the kidnapped woman believed to be the sole survivor. But when he locates Geneva, or “JJ” as she insists on being called, she’s not at all what he expected.

JJ isn’t sure she can trust the mysterious man who’s come to her rescue. But she has secrets of her own—secrets she’ll do anything to keep. So she’ll follow his instructions and keep her distance to get off this mountain alive without blowing her cover. As dangerous conditions force them together—and the undeniable chemistry between them ignites—he’ll protect her at any cost. But when the morning light comes, will the truth tear them apart?

This was my first read by this author. If I had seen this cover, I might not have read the book but I’m glad I did. For what it’s worth, the cover cowboy looks nothing like the description in the book and why they keep calling him a cowboy is also suspect. This is not a cowboy romance; it is romantic suspense with a loner, ex-Military protagonist who owns a couple of horses and lives in solitude in the mountains of Montana. Maybe that makes him a cowboy, but there are no ranches or rodeos or any kind of cowboy activities usually found in these kinds of books. I liked this book but it was not at all what I expected, and I hadn’t even seen the cover when I read it, which would have made my expectations even more wrong.

Thorn’s wife was killed and he hasn’t recovered. He’s had a hard life, and thanks to a judge who sent him to a sort of boot camp, he turned his life around. He joined the armed services, and is now retired and living alone on his mountain. When the judge calls to ask a favor, Thorn can’t say no. The judge’s friend Franklin is a very wealthy man. He lost his daughter to drugs, and now his granddaughter Geneva is out of control. He cuts her off except for a modest allowance, but then he is contacted by a man claiming to have kidnapped her. The kidnapper asks for $10 million dollars in ransom.

But grandpa was pretty smart. He put a high tech tracking device on his granddaughter’s phone, so he is able to see her whereabouts. Turns out she was flown out to the mountains, where the plane has apparently crashed about half an hour away from Thorn’s home. The judge asks Thorn to go check out the plane and rescue the granddaughter.

She is still alive, but is not at all what Thorn is expecting from a spoiled party girl. This girl has swiped a gun from one of her kidnappers who died in the plane crash, and she is not sure if she can trust Thorn so she shoots at him and tries to get away. He manages to get hold of her and get her back, but it turns out she may not be who Thorn thinks she is.

This was a fairly complicated kidnapping plot, with the wrong girl being taken and lots of bad guys popping up and making things worse. The girl Thorn rescued is JJ, a homeless travel agent who was squatting because she had made travel arrangements for Geneva so she knew the girl wouldn’t be home. But Geneva was smart enough to leave her phone behind so Grandpa couldn’t find her.

Thorn and JJ try to find Geneva, thinking her in serious trouble. There are lots of twists and turns and the suspense is high in this page-turner. A happy ending is reached pretty much all the way around, and I ended up enjoying this book a lot. In fact I couldn’t put it down.

8/2021 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

HEARTBREAKER by B. J. Daniels. HQN; Original edition (March 24, 2020). ISBN: 978-1335045195. 304 pages.

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THE SPARK by Vi Keeland

August 19, 2021

A new, sexy standalone from #1 New York Times Bestseller, Vi Keeland.

Before I even met Donovan Decker, I knew his shoe size.

You see, I’d gone away for a few days, and in my haste to get out of the airport, I’d grabbed the wrong suitcase.

After checking out the expensive footwear and tailored clothes, I dialed the number on the luggage tag hoping maybe Mister Big Spender might have my bag.

A deep, velvety voice answered, and as luck would have it, he had my suitcase, too. Donovan and I met at a coffee shop to do the exchange.

Turned out, it wasn’t just his voice that was sexy. The man holding my luggage was absolutely gorgeous, and we had an immediate spark.
He got me to admit that I’d snooped in his bag and then convinced me to make it up to him by letting him buy me coffee.

Coffee led to dinner, dinner led to dessert, and dessert led to spending an entire weekend together. Donovan wasn’t just handsome with a panty-dropping voice. He was also funny, smart, and surprisingly down to earth for a man who wore seven-hundred-dollar shoes.

Did I mention he also did my laundry while I slept? Definitely too good to be true.

So what did I do to repay him for his kindness?

I waited until he was in the shower, then ghosted him. My life was too complicated for such a great guy.

In the months that passed, I thought about Donovan often. But New York City had eight-million people, so what were the chances I’d run into him? Then again, what were the chances I’d run into him a year later…when I’d just started dating his boss?

This author is my Hoopla find. I don’t think I’ve seen her books when I’m requesting egalleys because I believe her books are all self published, but my library offers Hoopla and I found her there. I read The Invitation, and now this one, so I can tell you I will be going back to Hoopla to find more.

This book really surprised me. Based on the cover, I thought it was going to be more erotica than romance, but that was way off. There truly is no judging books by their covers sometimes. This book had a lot of depth to it and great character development.

Autumn is the heroine, and she meets Donovan when she accidentally takes his suitcase home from the airport. At least his has his name and phone number on the luggage tag. When she calls, it turns out he has her suitcase and they arrange to meet at a Starbucks for the swap. There is immediate attraction there, and they have coffee and talk and the next thing you know, they have spent the weekend together. No sex, but he did her laundry! But come Monday morning, Autumn disappears, completely ghosts him. He doesn’t know her last name or where she lives or her phone number. Donovan has always been a bit of a player, but he fell hard and fast for Autumn, so he is not happy when she ghosts him. He thought she felt the same way.

Donovan is a wealthy lawyer but it turns out he came from a very damaged and poor background. Autumn’s father is a lawyer, and she comes from a wealthy, sheltered background. But she is working as a social worker. and that’s where the story really starts.

Donovan is up for partner in his law firm, so when his boss asks him to take on a pro bono case, he can’t say no. And when he meets his client, he is shocked to see Autumn. She is the boy’s social worker and even though they haven’t seen each other for a year, the spark is very much there.

Autumn has some serious baggage in her past, and for six years has only been dating men that she doesn’t form any attachments to – no emotional connection, just dinners and sex. These “relationships” don’t generally last very long because as soon as a man seems to be more interested than she is, she is gone. That’s why she ghosted Donovan. And now she’s dating his boss, and that’s why he got the pro bono case.

They spend a lot of time together with the child she is trying to protect, and Donovan finds himself taking a strong interest in the child as well. The partnership won’t be his if he hits on his boss’s girlfriend, and he really wants that partnership. But the more time he spends with Autumn, the more he falls in love with her. But she is scared, really scared, and it takes a lot for them to get past all her issues. But a happy ending is achieved. I really enjoyed this book, in fact I couldn’t put it down and read it in one night. There is some sex eventually, but with all the romance it worked well in this story. Highly recommend!

Note: If you want to see an enlarged pic on the cover, it’s on the Amazon page!

8/2021 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

THE SPARK by Vi Keeland. C. Scott Publishing Corp. (July 12, 2021). ISBN: 978-1951045500. 300 pages.

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HEARTBREAK FOR HIRE by Sonia Hartl

August 18, 2021

From the publisher:

A smart, sexy, and witty romantic comedy—perfect for fans of Christina Lauren and Sally Thorne—about a twentysomething who lives out every woman’s fantasy: getting paid to give men who do us wrong a taste of their own medicine. But when a previous target unexpectedly shows up at her office, she’s forced to rethink her life as a professional heartbreaker.

Brinkley Saunders has a secret.

To everyone in the academic world she left behind, she lost it all when she dropped out of grad school. Once a rising star following in her mother’s footsteps, she’s now an administrative assistant at an insurance agency—or so they think.

In reality, Brinkley works at Heartbreak for Hire, a secret service that specializes in revenge for jilted lovers, frenemies, and long-suffering coworkers with a little cash to spare and a man who needs to be taken down a notch. It might not be as prestigious as academia, but it helps Brinkley save for her dream of opening an art gallery and lets her exorcise a few demons, all while helping to empower women.

But when her boss announces she’s hiring male heartbreakers for the first time, Brinkley’s no longer so sure she’s doing the right thing—especially when her new coworker turns out to be a target she was paid to take down. Though Mark spends his days struggling up the academic ladder, he seems to be the opposite of a backstabbing adjunct: a nerd at heart in criminally sexy sweater vests who’s attentive both in and out of the bedroom. But as Brinkley finds it increasingly more difficult to focus on anything but Mark, she soon realizes that like herself, people aren’t always who they appear to be.

With Sonia Hartl’s “bitingly funny” (Publishers Weekly) prose, Heartbreak for Hire is a clever romcom you and your girlfriends won’t be able to stop talking about.

This was an interesting premise; women for hire to take down whatever man did you wrong. Not cheap, but possibly therapeutic? The woman who started the company found her employees crying in coffeeshops or bars etc. She offers them a way to work out their demons, and Brinkley certainly has some. She was in a psychologically abusive relationship for several years while she was in college. In fact, the breakup led her to drop out of her masters program at Northwestern, where her mother is a professor.

Brinkley and her mom do not get along. Her mother was determined that Brinkley follow her footsteps into a career in academia. But when Brinkley changes her major to art and then drops out, her mother is just beside herself. They meet up every week for lunch where her they end up fighting. Every week. Her mom thinks she is an administrative assistant in an insurance company because Brinkley never tells anyone what she really does for a living.

Then she meets Mark. The woman who contracted for his takedown is a nightmare, and Brinkley isn’t sure she even believes what she says, but a job is a job so off she goes. Except when she meets him, she likes him. A lot. They end up back at his place but she panics and runs out on him. Then they keep bumping into each other, and soon a relationship is keeping them both busy. But when he is hired by her company in their attempt to add men to the roster, none of the staff are happy, to say the least.

This was a laugh out loud book for me, lots of crazy situations along with the romance and some hot sex. Total fantasy, but what’s wrong with that!

8/2021 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

HEARTBREAK FOR HIRE by Sonia Hartl. Gallery Books (July 27, 2021). ISBN: 978-1982167783. 320 pages.

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THE VISCOUNT MADE ME DO IT by Diana Quincy

August 17, 2021

Clandestine Affairs, Book 2

From the publisher:

Diana Quincy returns with the second novel in her Clandestine Affairs series featuring a steamy romance between a working class London bonesetter who is dangerously attracted to her mysterious noble client.

A seduction that could ruin everything . . .

Hanna Zaydan has fought to become London’s finest bonesetter, but her appealing new patient threatens to destroy everything she’s worked so hard for. With each appointment, the daughter of foreign merchants is slowly seduced by the mysterious former soldier. She’s smart enough to know Griff is after more than he’ll reveal, but whatever it is, the bonesetter’s growing desire for the man just might tempt her to give it to him.

An attraction that cannot be denied . . .

Rumors that he killed his own parents have followed Thomas Ellis, Viscount Griffin, practically since he was a boy. More than a decade after the tragedy, Griff receives a tip about his parents’ killer . . . one that takes him straight to a beautiful bonesetter. Griff is convinced Hanna is a fraud, but she stirs genuine feelings in him that he thought had perished along with his family.

Hanna has a gift for fixing fractured people, but can she also mend a broken heart? More importantly, will Griff let her?

I read the first book in this series, Her Night with the Duke, and really liked it, so I was happy to get my hands on this one. This is a terrific romance with the most fascinating heroine.

I never heard of a bonesetter before, but based on the work she does in this story, it is sort of a cross between a chiropractor, orthopedist, and maybe physical therapist, all rolled into one. Hanna is not allowed to go to medical school, she is a young woman, but nothing stopped her from learning from her father. He, too, was a bonesetter, and from the time she was a young girl Hanna knew this was her destiny. The only problem is that the medical community thinks of bonesetters as charlatans and quacks.

Griff’s parents were murdered when he was a teenager and he hasn’t heard from his sisters since. His father’s best friend was named his guardian, and he took care of Griff as best he could. Eventually, Griff joins the army until he is severely injured and sent home. His shoulder, elbow and wrist were injured and never healed properly, leaving him in constant pain for years. His guardian, a doctor and head of a local hospital, tells him to just give it more time and offers opium, which Griff is avoiding at all costs.

Griff happens to be nearby when a young man along with a group of his rowdy friends, approaches Hanna, offering his wrist up as being “injured” to see if she’ll fall for it. Not only doesn’t she fall for it, she is so angry and embarrassed at being made a spectacle that she dislocates his wrist. Before she can walk away, Griff notices the unusual sapphire pendant she is wearing. It was his mother’s, and had disappeared after her murder.

Thinking it may lead him to whoever murdered his parents, he goes to visit the bonesetter under the pretext of his war injuries. She examines him, and there is chemistry between them. She says she thinks she can help him, and by manipulating his shoulder, she relieves the pain he has been in for years. He is amazed, but still curious about the necklace. She prescribes a salve to be strongly massaged into his joints and eventually helps his elbow and wrist as well. Griff was on the precipice of suicide; he just didn’t know how much longer he could live with the pain but after her treatment, he was a new man.

His guardian doesn’t believe that she actually helped him. He thinks it is a coincidence because he felt that at some point it would just heal on its own, and he thinks it did. But Griff knows better. He gets closer to Hanna, even bringing her another patient, but his guardian is set on having her thrown out of London.

Griff and Hanna can never be together. He is of the aristocracy, and she is of the working class. Even if he wanted to look past that, Hanna is also Arab and her family would never allow her to marry outside her race. With all these seemingly insurmountable odds against them, the mystery of his murdered parents, and the struggles Hanna is having with the hospital board, it is quite the hurdle to get to their happily ever after.

This was a terrific love story and Hanna was an intelligent, interesting character. I liked the mystery that was entangled in the story, and of course, the happy ending. I think this books stands alone beautifully, but do read the first one as well, it was also a really interesting read.

8/2021 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

TTHE VISCOUNT MADE ME DO IT by Diana Quincy. Avon (July 27, 2021). ISBN: 978-0062986818. 384 pages.