A blizzard leaves Erin stranded and at the mercy of her childhood nemesis. Trapped, with no electricity or dry clothes, things heat up when two frienemies are forced to share a bed.
From bestselling and award winning author, Lydia Michaels, comes a second-chance bully romance about love and redemption that will touch readers’ hearts!
Giovanni Mosconi has returned to Jasper Falls after years of touring as a standup comedian. When Erin Montgomery, his childhood enemy, heckles his performance at O’Malley’s Pub, he holds nothing back and roasts her in front of the whole town. Emotions run wild and secrets are exposed when hate turns to lust and lines begin to blur.
Can trust form where betrayal began? Or should some secrets go to the grave?
This was a difficult read, and may be triggering for some readers.
Erin was an abused child. Her father beat her mother until she left. He beat his kids on the regular, and when Erin’s older brother makes his escape, that leaves Erin to take the brunt of his never ending anger. At one point she leaves, and I wasn’t quite clear on why she goes back to that situation. I suspect it is more psychological than anything and frankly, I don’t really understand it. Michaels does a good job describing Erin’s life growing up, and it is heartbreaking. But I don’t understand a woman who would leave her children with an abuser. I don’t understand why victims go back. I would live in my car with my children before I allowed their father to hurt them. Or me. But I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve never had to deal with physical abuse like that. I think we try and relate in some way to what we read, even if it is outside our scope of knowledge or understanding. At least I do.
Due to her bruises and injuries, Erin misses a lot of school. School is the one place she feels safe, even though the other kids make fun of her. She develops a very hard shell and in this small town, has no friends other than Finn. They have been best friends since elementary school but in high school, their relationship develops more intimacy, and that is something Erin can’t handle. She knows Finn wants more than she can give him, and when he decides to go into his family’s business, she ends things between them. She wants to escape and knows if he works there, he will never leave.
Erin’s father owns a hardware store in town and is beloved by everyone except his family, who are the only ones who know the truth of his abuse. She has returned to this town and works for her father, increasing her abuse as she spends more time with him. She has zero self esteem, no self confidence, and is quite sure she has never been loved in her life – other than maybe Finn. She knows that anyone who gets to know her will leave her, just like her mother and brother did.
One night Finn convinces her to meet up with him, his wife and family at the local bar. His cousin Giovanni, a comedian, is working that night. Grudgingly she agrees, but when she makes a nasty comment during his set, Giovanni eviscerates her. She runs out into a snowstorm and ends up in a ditch. Giovanni is passing by and sees the car so he stops to try and help. He is shocked to find Erin barely conscious. He gets her out of the car and they walk up the road to the motel where he is staying. The power is out, and they use body heat to stay warm.
They have sex, and Giovanni is surprised by his attraction to the hard, bitter woman. But as they spend time together, he begins to see beneath her shell. There are several steamy sex scenes here, but it is the emotional connection that has Erin so scared. Giovanni is the first man to be truly kind to her, and they do get a happy ending, but it is a very bumpy road to get there. This is not a romcom nor a light, frothy Valentine’s Day read, so if that is what you are looking for, look elsewhere. It is an interesting story but very dark, especially for a romance.
2/2022 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
MY FUNNY VALENTINE by Lydia Michaels. Bailey Brown Publishing (January 31, 2022). ISBN: 978-1957573007. 262p.
New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey returns with a sexy and hilarious series about three hotshot rookie cops in the NYPD police academy.
You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone…
Police academy cadet Charlie Burns can’t believe his luck when the gorgeous blonde he meets in a bar murmurs those magic words: “Nothing serious, ’kay?” Mind-blowing, no-strings sex with Ever Carmichael—it’s the holy grail of hookups for a guy who’s too busy following in his law enforcement family’s footsteps to think about getting serious. Charlie’s all about casual…that is, until Ever calls it quits and his world tilts on its axis.
Ever knows that when you control the relationship game, you can’t get played. But for the first time, she wants more than short-term satisfaction. Step one: end her fling with commitment-phobic Charlie. Step two: sacrifice herself to the ruthless NYC dating scene. Yet everywhere she turns, there’s Charlie, being his ridiculously charming self. No online match or blind date compares to the criminally hot cop-in-training, but they’re over. Aren’t they?
If love is a four-letter-word, why does the idea of Ever seeing someone else tie Charlie up in knots? Now he’s desperate to win her back…and a little date sabotage never hurt anyone, right?
This romance is HOT, HOT, HOT! What starts out as a one night stand quickly evolves into a month’s worth of sexual satisfaction. There isn’t much in the way of talking, but when the month ends and Ever tries to enforce her 30 days and it’s over rule, Charlie is surprised. It’s not that he’s looking for a relationship, he swears he isn’t, but the sex is so crazy good he doesn’t want it to end. Plus there is something about Ever that has crawled into his heart, and try as he might, he can’t escape his feelings.
Ever was taught by her mother to keep her heart safe. Her mother only dates married men, but Ever can’t bring herself to do that. She sticks to single guys but doesn’t do relationships. At all. But then her mother tells her she was wrong, so Ever decides she will try dating for real. But Charlie can’t handle that and unbeknownst to Ever, starts interfering in her life.
Ever really likes Charlie but he has made his feelings about avoiding relationships perfectly clear. But no other man can seem to measure up, especially once Charlie gets in the way.
This was a sexy romance with a lot of humor and heart and I really enjoyed it. Can’t wait for the next one in this series!
One cupid, two calamities, four uproarious lovers. Insta-love meets insta-disaster in these laugh-out-loud Valentine’s day novellas.
Animal Attraction by Evie Alexander: Overworked, underpaid, and perpetually single, Laurie is stuck in a rut. A birthday on Valentine’s day is bad enough, but when her insensitive colleagues drag her to a secret Safari dining experience, her day hits rock bottom – she’s terrified of animals. Workaholic Ben has just swapped the States for Somerset. He’s on track to fulfil a childhood dream, and the only date he wants on Valentine’s day is a business one. But when his fantasy woman approaches with an offer he can’t refuse, his priorities start to change. Laurie and Ben have an instant connection and their chemistry is wild. Unfortunately so are the animals. When the menagerie goes into meltdown they’re thrown into a Darwinian Hunger Games, fighting for their lives as well as love. Can Businessman Ben unleash his inner Tarzan and save Laurie? Or has this survival of the fittest reached the point of no return?
Stupid Cupid by Kelly Kay: Resourceful Sabrina always puts others’ needs first. She never thought she’d be abandoning a blind date to run off with a stranger. But now she’s got the chance to face her demons and choose happiness – even if it’s just for one night. Charmer Patrick can make any situation work in his favor. But snark and humor won’t be enough to win Sabrina’s heart. He’s got to dig deep, open up, and take on fate as well as New York City. Armed with a fire extinguisher, a cobbler’s hammer, and an EpiPen, can Patrick and Sabrina survive the worst-best date of their lives and find true love? Or will they lose each other as well as the plot?
Evie and Kelly’s Holiday Disasters are a series of hot and hilarious romantic comedies with interconnected characters, focusing on one holiday and one trope at a time. No cheating, no cliff-hangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after (HEA).
I don’t usually love novellas, but this was such a fun read! Plus there are two novellas, so twice the fun, just in time for Valentine’s Day.
Because these are so short, there is not a whole lot of character development or back story, but it doesn’t seem to matter. I was immediately drawn in to both of these stories. They are both set on Valentine’s Day, one a blind date gone sideways, the other a disastrous dinner with friends. I don’t want to give anything away, so bear with me.
The disastrous dinner is set in a restaurant that has wild animals roaming around, including chimpanzees, a talking bird, and an elephant. It is a bit over the top, but the meet-cute is heroic, and the romance is fun.
The blind date goes sideways when Patrick and Sabrina lay eyes on each other. They are each at this restaurant to meet someone else, blind dates, but their attraction is instantaneous and strong. Their rejected dates are not happy about the situation, to say the least. Patrick and Sabrina take off and encounter one problem after another, making this the date from hell that brings them impossibly close in one night.
This is the first book of a series set around holidays. This is the light, frothy, fun read I wanted for Valentine’s Day. It made me laugh out loud several times, which is always a plus. Even though it is two novellas, it is still a very short book (less than 200 pages) and a very easy read. Enjoy!
2/2022 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
CUPID CALAMITY by Kelly Kay & Evie Alexander. Emlin Press (January 10, 2022). ISBN: 978-1914473098. 172p.
A Logical Man’s Guide to Dangerous Women Novel, Book 3
From the publisher:
New York Times bestselling author Cathy Maxwell’s delicious Logical Man’s Guide to Dangerous Women series continues with this provocative romance between a reprobate earl and a sensible spinster who agree to marry under scandalous circumstances. Perfect for fans of Sophie Jordan and Sabrina Jeffries.
Lesson #1: A man, even titled and handsome, cannot be careless forever.
The Earl of Marsden—better known as Mars to all—has lived his life by his own rules…until he is presented with a very big problem in a very tiny package—a baby girl, his daughter cast off by his ex-mistress. Mars won’t let his child be cast adrift, except he doesn’t know the first thing about babies.
Panicking, he turns to a woman for help. Not just any woman, but Clarissa Taylor, village spinster, matron-in-training, and Mars’s greatest critic. Still, who better to tend a motherless child than a woman who was abandoned as a babe herself?
Lesson #2: Life always plays the upper hand—especially when it comes to love.
Clarissa desperately wishes to not to be beholden to anyone. She has spent a lifetime being pitied by the village. Her plan is simple—to use what the intolerable earl will pay her to become her own woman. It all sounds so straightforward until the threat of scandal sends her and the one man she can’t abide toward . . . marriage?
Mars and Clarissa are about to learn the greatest lesson of all—that sparks always fly when the iron is hot.
I haven’t read Maxwell in a few years, so I missed the first two books of this series. That said, I kind of knew there were stories before it (I thought just one) but it didn’t really matter. I didn’t feel like there were any holes in the story or that I was missing some crucial plot point. It stands alone beautifully – but now I want to read the first two books in this series!
Mars is local royalty in this small town and his nemesis has been a foundling raised by the village cleric and his wife, Clarissa. They just rub each other the wrong way. But when an ex-paramour dumps a baby in his lap and takes off, he falls in love instantly but quickly realizes he is in over his head. While the baby isn’t a newborn, she is well under a year old and he has zero experience with babies. He turns to the town matrons, who immediately push Clarissa to take care of the babe.
Clarissa can’t stand Mars, but as an abandoned baby herself, she can’t bear the thought of this little girl growing up unloved, so she reluctantly agrees to help out. Fairly quickly Mars realizes that he needs a wife and mother for his daughter, and somehow manages to convince Clarissa to take on the role. There is some family drama going on that adds some hurdles to their happily ever after, but that is the fun of a romance!
I really enjoyed this book. I like learning how babies were fed and cared for when they didn’t have a mother to nurse them, for instance. Mars and Clarissa both had interesting back stories and I liked getting to know them. I couldn’t help but root for them to find their happily ever after, and there was some real chemistry between them – along with some hot bedroom scenes. This was a terrific Regency romance, so if you enjoy those, don’t miss this one.
A Logical Man’s Guide to Dangerous Women, books in order:
Welcome back to the pandemic that never ends! Ever hopeful, last June I changed the name of this monthly journal from “Coronavirus Diary” to “Cerebration,” meaning to use the mind, to think. Plus it sounds like “celebration” which I thought we could do because, no more Covid. It seemed like the worst of it was over. There were vaccines available everywhere. I was so naïve. Here we are almost two years in and the experts still can’t agree on anything except the novel coronavirus is here to stay, in all its variant glory. I give up; my Coronavirus Diary is also here to stay.
A couple of weeks ago, I was reading the “On Parenting” newsletter written by Jessica Grose for the New York Times. I have a grandson now and things have changed a lot since my kids were infants, and I like to keep up on what’s new, so I subscribed. Anyway, Grose mentioned how her 9-year-old daughter was wondering if the pandemic would still be around when she was ready for college, and she goes on to say she wasn’t “quite ready to break down the difference between ‘pandemic’ and ‘endemic.’” That was in the newsletter I received, but she also wrote an op-ed, Your Kid’s Existential Dread Is Normal. that touches on parenting during this pandemic that parents may find helpful.
We keep thinking this will end at some point, this life with masks and vaccines and incredibly selfish people who use neither. But what if we are wrong. What if, without our even realizing it, this pandemic has evolved into an endemic. And why do we never hear “epidemic,” which seems most like what we are experiencing? I looked to the internet and Merriam Webster for answers.
epidemic: an outbreak of disease that spreads quickly and affects many individuals at the same time : an outbreak of epidemic disease
pandemic: an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area (such as multiple countries or continents) and typically affects a significant proportion of the population : a pandemic outbreak of a disease, i.e. a global pandemic
endemic: 2: restricted or peculiar to a locality or region, i.e. endemic diseases. Used in a sentence:
The reality is that the virus will eventually become endemic, like many other pathogens that humanity lives with.— The Editorial Board, WSJ, 21 Dec. 2021
It turns out that a lot of people are talking about an endemic, with the general consensus being the Covid pandemic will evolve into an endemic in 2022. This year. Pretty much any day now. And that is a good thing, believe it or not.
We are on track for Covid to evolve and be treated more like the flu. It’s only taken two years since the defeated former president “admitted to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward in early February that he knew the coronavirus was “more deadly than even your strenuous flu,” but the [defeated former] president continued to compare Covid-19 to the flu for weeks following his conversation with Woodward, claiming he “wanted to always play it down.” Forbes, All The Times Trump Compared Covid-19 To The Flu, Even After He Knew Covid-19 Was Far More Deadly
Life goes on, with any luck. I am double masking at work. I start every day with a smile, as soon as I look at a picture of my grandson. I further escape into books. And cooking/baking.
What’s Cooking
Here’s the best thing I made in January: Short Rib Onion Soup from Smitten Kitchen.
It is not a last minute dinner decision, a thirty-minute meal, or a sheet pan dinner, but you know what? Not everything has to be! It’s not made from pantry ingredients, either. I had to go shopping and buy short ribs and more onions and fresh thyme (my herb garden is dead) and a leek. On the plus side, I had some beef stock in the freezer that was going on six months old and needed to be used immediately, if not sooner. (Please don’t tell me we are all going to die because it was too old or whatever; I used it, we ate it, it was delicious, we lived.)
It took me a good part of the day to make this, but I didn’t mind a bit. First of all, it smells amazing every step of the way, from heavily browning the short ribs to braising them in the oven to caramelizing the onions to broiling the cheese toasts. You can make the short ribs a day ahead, if that helps. My husband and my daughter kept wandering in to see what was cooking, so that was fun.
By the time it was all ready, the incredible smells that had permeated the house all day had us so crazed and hungry we scarfed it down like we hadn’t eaten in a week. (Seriously, which means I didn’t get a picture, so I borrowed this one from Deb Perelman. Thanks, Deb!) Everyone loved it, and if you enjoy an occasional day of slow cooking, I promise you won’t be sorry you made this. (Other than the expense – short ribs are $$$) But I have enough left over for another dinner, and that will take less than thirty minutes. And something to look forward to – a new Smitten Kitchen Cookbook is coming in fall 2022!
F.B.I. Arrests Man Accused of Stealing Unpublished Book Manuscripts* The New York Times reported that Filippo Bernardini, an Italian citizen who worked in publishing, was charged with wire fraud and identity theft for a scheme that prosecutors said affected hundreds of people over five or more years.
A Library the Internet Can’t Get Enough Of* Why does this image keep resurfacing on social media? The New York Times investigates this viral photo of an incredible home library.
Finally, I can’t not mention Wordle. Back in December, I discovered this game (from my son? from an article? I don’t remember!) and I fell in love. In case you aren’t on social media, don’t listen to podcasts, or read the news, it is the latest fad to hit the pandemic. It’s an old school word game that you play on a bare bones website. No app. No ads. No sucking you in and playing all day because <gasp> there is only one puzzle to solve each day. It takes me anywhere from five to fifteen minutes to play and it is one of the most satisfying five to fifteen minutes of my day. There has only been one puzzle so far that I couldn’t solve (WHACK) and once I had a twofer – solved it in two guesses (MOUNT). If you want to try it, best hurry – the New York Times just bought it and will be (I’m sure) rolling it into their games app. Although they did say it will be free initially, so kudos NYT on that, for however long it lasts. And honestly, kudos to them for buying it, they could have created their own version. There have been several copycat versions with a twist, like Lewdle, Queerdle, and an archived version, and some wiseasses stole the game, turned it into an app, then tweeted about how they were monetizing it. Apple removed those apps from the App Store (and I’m assuming other app providers did as well, but I don’t know for sure.)
I think one of the most fun things about it is how easy it is to share on social media. You can show your score and it doesn’t give anything away. There’s a Facebook group, (probably several by now, but that’s the one I joined back when there were only a few hundred members – today there are 22,000!) It seems to be mostly on Twitter though, or at least it started out that way. It’s just the spot of fun that we all sometimes need in our day. I’ll write about my other word game obsession, the New York Times Spelling Bee, another day!
*Thanks to The New York Times and The Washington Post for allowing me to “gift” my readers with free access to these articles, a lovely perk for subscribers.
From the bestselling author of the Angel Falls series, two enemies say “I do” in the first irresistible book about Blossom Glen.
Pastry chef Tessa Montgomery knows what everyone in the teeny town of Blossom Glen says about her. Spinster. Ice Queen. Such a shame. It’s enough to make a woman bake her troubles away, dreaming of Parisian delicacies while she makes bread at her mother’s struggling boulangerie. That is until Tessa’s mortal enemy―deliciously handsome (if arrogant) chef Leo Castorini, who owns the restaurant next door―proposes a business plan…to get married.
Leo knows that the Castorinis and the Montgomerys hate each other, but a marriage might just force these stubborn families to work together and blend their businesses for success. The deal is simple: Tessa and Leo marry, live together for six months, and then go their separate ways. Easy peasy.
It’s a sweetheart deal where everyone gets what they want―until feelings between the faux newlyweds start seriously complicating the mix. Have they discovered the perfect recipe for success…or is disaster on the way?
This was such a fun read! And look at me, starting a series with the first book. I will definitely be looking for the next.
Tessa and Leo have some history, and their families do as well. In fact, the feud between the Montgomerys and the Castorinis goes back almost a hundred years. Tessa and Leo have been competitive since high school, when Leo beat out Tessa for a coveted college scholarship that allowed him to escape their small town and go to school in New York City. He graduated and worked in the financial market there for ten years, while Tessa stayed, working in her family’s boulangerie but dreaming of owning her own pastry shop. For those of you who didn’t have Mlle. Levitt for French class, (she of the love affair with all French food,) or you were smarter than me and took Spanish, a boulangerie is a bakery that only sells bread. A patisserie sells pastry, cake, cookies, etc., and never the twain shall meet under the same roof. In France. In America, it’s a rare bakery that narrows itself that much, but I digress.
Leo and Tessa have more in common than a lifelong rivalry. He lost his mother when he was young; Tessa lost her father. Their family businesses are next door neighbors, which only increases the friction. Now that Leo has returned from New York, he wants to help his father save the family business, an Italian restaurant that has been in decline since his mother died. But his father isn’t interested in Leo’s ideas or trying anything new. All he wants is for Leo to get married. Leo soon realizes that the only way he will be able to help save the restaurant is if he gets married, but Leo has been a player for years, not interested in any kind of relationship. Until now.
Tessa’s family business is also on the skids. They lost their biggest account, a small grocery chain that was swallowed by a bigger one. Her mother will not allow her to sell any pastries in the shop, and is also stuck in the mindset of it used to work just fine this way and it will again. But will they have the time to find that out?
Leo proposes a marriage of convenience to Tessa; they will work together to save both family businesses, then in six months or so, divorce. It takes some persuading but Tessa finally caves. The fake marriage, a variation of the fake dating trope, is always fun and it is here. Do I have to tell you that Tessa and Leo fall in love? That they have a major falling out that threatens everything? And that they find their way back to one another?
I loved these characters and their stubbornness. I loved how they both caved, dragging their families out of the Romeo & Juliet feud into a happy ending. There is a lot of humor here, and a lot of heart in this sweet romance. The only thing that could have made this book better would have been recipes! I can’t wait for the next book in this series, The Sweetheart Fix. Sadly, it will be a bit of a wait.
1/2022 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
THE SWEETHEART DEAL by Miranda Liasson. Montlake (January 18, 2022). ISBN: 978-1649370273. 330p.
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill meets Younger in a heartfelt debut following a young woman who discovers she’ll have to ditch the “dream job” and write her own story to find her happy ending.
Meet Nora Hughes―the overworked, underpaid, last bookish assistant standing. At least for now.
When Nora landed an editorial assistant position at Parsons Press, it was her first step towards The Dream Job. Because, honestly, is there anything dreamier than making books for a living? But after five years of lunch orders, finicky authors, and per my last emails, Nora has come to one grand conclusion: Dream Jobs do not exist.
With her life spiraling and the Parsons staff sinking, Nora gets hit with even worse news. Parsons is cutting her already unlivable salary. Unable to afford her rent and without even the novels she once loved as a comfort, Nora decides to moonlight for a rival publisher to make ends meet…and maybe poach some Parsons’ authors along the way.
But when Andrew Santos, a bestselling Parsons author no one can afford to lose is thrown into the mix, Nora has to decide where her loyalties lie. Her new Dream Job, ever-optimistic Andrew, or…herself and her future.
Your next book club read touching on mental health, happiness, and the peaks and perils of being a young woman just trying to figure it all out. Nora Hughes is the perfect heroine for anyone looking to get past their own chapter twenty-something and build their storybook life.
I really wanted to like this book more than I did. It’s got a great title that immediately drew my attention because it was reminiscent of one of my favorite books, and the very first book I reviewed for Library Journal, Must Love Dogs. It made the Library Reads list (the books library staff loved reading and cannot wait to share) for January, which almost never steers me wrong. But by the time I finished it – and it took me three days to read it – I just thought it was okay.
I loved that it was set in the publishing world. I loved that it addressed the whiteness of the publishing industry with the protagonists being biracial and Hispanic. But I didn’t love Nora, the main character, (which really hurt because one of my best friends is named Nora and I only associate good with that name!) I didn’t even like her that much. She lied to everyone and I have issues with that. She suffers from depression and that really isn’t addressed in a professional way, which bothered me.
The male protagonist is an author, Andrew Santos, and I wish his character would have been more developed. I still don’t feel like I know much about him at all. He’s Hispanic but I don’t know any more than that. If it was noted anywhere, I missed it I guess. He was just a name on the page to me. and that’s never a good thing.
The story was a bit slow for me, and by the time I finished it I just thought it was just okay. This is also not a book that you should judge by its cover. It looks like a romcom or fluffy romance, but it is not. If you read it, I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Note: The publisher blurb compared this book to “Younger,” which I loved. If you haven’t seen it, I watched it on Hulu, and Google says it is also streaming on Paramount+.Highly recommend!
1/2022 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
MUST LOVE BOOKS by Shauna Robinson. Sourcebooks Landmark (January 18, 2022). ISBN: 978-1728240732. 336p.
I would know. I’m coming home with a brand-new ring on my finger.
My wife? Ryan Bell. We’re polar opposites. She’s sunshine and happiness. I’m grumpy and scarred—literally.
We could get it annulled and no one would be the wiser. Only problem? We posted about it online, and it’s already making headlines.
I can’t afford to get that kind of attention and tank my career, and Ryan needs my help too. We make a plan: stay married for one year, play our roles, and divorce amicably at the end. No harm, no foul.
Besides, there’s no way the beauty is going to fall for the beast…
I love sports romances, and this was a good one. You don’t have to be a sports fan to appreciate a romance set in that world, however. More broadly, these types of romances can also be considered “millionaire” romances because usually the sports figure is making bank. In this case, the main character is Adrian Rhodes, star of the (fictional) Carolina Comets, a Stanley Cup winning NHL franchise. Hockey, for the uninitiated. You do not have to be a hockey fan to enjoy this, either, although with all the talk about how hockey players have great butts, you may want to tune in for a game!
Adrian and a few of his teammates have gone to Vegas to celebrate their win, along with his teammate Collin’s girlfriend and her best friend, Ryan. Ryan and Adrian have been thrown together a few times and just sort of ignore each other. But this night Ryan gets drunk, and his friends ask him to take care of her. He decides she should have some food before passing out and they end up in a diner. As Ryan sobers up, she is looking at her phone and sees Adrian’s ex-girlfriend is engaged to his former teammate. She tells him, and he takes it hard. Even though he normally doesn’t drink much, he decides it is a good night to start. They end up waking in bed together, married. And they posted a video of their Vegas wedding online.
Ryan is a social media beauty influencer, with almost half a million followers. Rhodes is a hockey star, who is now trending on Twitter. Neither remembers much but they both decide to avoid catastrophe, they will have to stay married until he gets through the next hockey season, so about a year. The only ones who know the truth are their best friends. They even lie to their families about it.
As they spend time together, they are both fighting an attraction to one another. Adrian has a disfiguring scar across his face that he got from a skate while he was in high school. His nickname is the Beast, more for his hockey skills, but he is very self conscious about that scar. He can’t understand why Ryan isn’t horrified by him, and in fact she is one of the few people who actually looks him in the eye. And it doesn’t hurt that he thinks she’s a knockout.
Ryan thinks he is incredibly hot and as she gets to know him realizes he is also very kind. The attraction takes them where you’d expect, and there are several steamy sex scenes. But before they can admit they love one another, Ryan finds out something pretty big that Adrian has neglected to tell her, and she leaves him.
I couldn’t help rooting for this Beauty and the Beast, and they do find their happily ever after. There are a lot of laughs here as well as some angst, making this a terrific one night read for me. I wish I had read the first book in the series, and I am definitely looking forward to the next!
1/2022 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
BLIND PASS by Teagan Hunter. Independently published (January 27, 2022). ASIN: B09JZSS8P3. 320p.
A Korean-American adoptee fights to be with the one she loves while coming to terms with her new identity in this enthralling romantic drama and sequel to Heart and Seoul by USA Today bestselling author Jen Frederick.
When Hara Wilson lands in Seoul to find her birth mother, she doesn’t plan on falling in love with the first man she lays eyes on, but Choi Yujun is irresistible. If his broad shoulders and dimples weren’t enough, Choi Yujun is the most genuine, decent, gorgeous guy to exist. Too bad he’s also her stepbrother.
Fate brought her to the Choi doorstep but the gift of family comes with burdens. A job in her mother’s company has perks of endless company dinners and super resentful coworkers. A new country means learning a new language which twenty-five year old Hara is finding to be a Herculean task. A forbidden love means having to choose between her birth family or Choi Yujun.
All Hara wanted was to find a place to belong in this world—but in order to have it all, she’ll have to risk it all.
This is the follow up to Heart and Seoul, which ended on a cliff hanger so I was all in. These books were marketed as romance, but the first one did not have the “happily ever after” requirement that most romance readers look for. This time, there is a HEA.
So while this has the happy ending, the book is again a more immersive dive into family and Korean culture than romance. Hara and Yujun met and fell in love in the first book, so we don’t get the meet-cute here. Instead, we get a lot of Korean family values and why these two cannot be together. Yujun seems more invested while Hara is more torn about everything. But that makes sense; as a character, Yujun is strong and self assured while Hara questions everything in her life.
Hara is now working for her birth mother in the company Yujun helps run. Needless to say, her boss and co-workers in the marketing department are not thrilled to have nepotism thrust in their faces. She is living with her birth mother in an enormous house in Seoul, and her mother showers her with gifts, mostly designer wear, which makes Hara uncomfortable. She misses her mom and wishes she had a better relationship with her birth mother, who is a bit standoffish. She hates her job, is bored most of the time, and doesn’t get to spend nearly enough time with Yujun as his mother keeps him away as much as possible.
The more we learn about customs in Korea, the more impossible it seems for Hara and Yujun to stay together or have any kind of future. But a happy ending is eked out. This is again more women’s fiction or multicultural fiction than romance, but it is an enjoyable read if you adjust your expectations accordingly.
1/2022 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
SEOULMATES by Jen Frederick. Berkley (January 25, 2022). ISBN: 978-0593100165. 304p.
Bush pilot Bridget Shanahan runs from responsibility like a child runs from a dentist appointment, but when her brother leaves the family’s airfield in her hands, she knows it’s time to step up and behave like a Responsible Adult™. So of course that’s when Archer Ellison III blows into her tiny town of Captivity, Alaska, every inch the hot-as-hell mistake that most definitely belongs in her past. Been there, done that, and didn’t even get to keep the commemorative sweatshirt.
Archer has only ever had two goals. Now that he’s built his own empire outside his father’s company, he can move on to goal #2—winning back the one who got away by whatever means necessary. He knows it won’t be easy. Bridget Shanahan is older, wiser, more self-assured, and jaw-droppingly stunning…and doing everything she can to pretend the scorching chemistry between them doesn’t exist.
But fate is on his side. After an impulsive bet that would have sent Archer packing goes awry, Bridget is officially stuck with him. Which is really inconvenient, since falling for Archer again is the least responsible thing she could do.
I loved the first book in this series, Wild in Captivity, so I was really looking forward to this one. I am happy to say it did not disappoint! Set in the small town of Captivity, Alaska, this book centers on Bridget, younger sister to Trace, the main character in the first book. All we really know about Bridget is that she is the flighty, irresponsible one working at the airport in the family business. She loves to fly, just doesn’t love to fly on someone else’s schedule. But Trace and Izzy are going on their honeymoon, which means Bridget has to step up.
Best laid plans and all that…the honeymooners leave, and Bridget runs into Archer, her college boyfriend who suddenly dumped her and took off. Bridget was heartbroken and dropped out of Stanford to come home. It’s a few years later but she has more to deal with than the jerk who broke her heart. She also lost her twin brother in a horrible accident, and for some reason, he keeps coming back to talk to her. Or his ghost does. It’s not too out there, but rather comforting, I think.
Archer has moved to Captivity on a permanent basis. Finally out from under his father’s thumb, he is determined to win back Bridget, the only girl he ever loved and lost. She doesn’t want any part of him, and they make a bet: if she wins, he’ll keep away from her, if he wins, he gets a kiss. So sweet! But this is not a sweet romance, it is a very steamy one, so if that is not your jam, read something else.
I would call this enemies-to-lovers adjacent. When Archer left, Bridget was devastated and she hasn’t had a relationship since, other than one night stands here and there. So the fact that Archer is back and pretty up front about wanting her back doesn’t sit well with Bridget. Sex, on the other hand, is fine with her. In this romance, sex leads the way back to love, and that worked.
This was a fun read with a lot of laugh out loud moments, and I really liked these characters. I love the small town Alaska setting, as well. Highly recommend this book, and this series. Oh, and Keyush is back, too, that smart Malamute/Husky mix dog that talks.
Which reminds me…there was an article in the NY Times recently about a small town in Alaska and something they are doing in school that I found most unusual. I have never lived anywhere outside of a city or suburb, so rural life is always interesting to me. I am anti-hunting as a rule, anti-guns to be honest, but I’ve read enough to understand why not everyone feels that way. My husband was shocked when I didn’t rage against this but rather embraced it; seemed like a great class for that Alaskan town.
Posted by Stacy Alesi 
Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™ 