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From the publisher:

Welcome to Pecan Valley, where the town may be small but the townspeople will always lend a helping hand or a shoulder to lean on. Where good times, good humor, and good people will always lead to happily ever after.

Life for Felicity, and her teen children, is finally back on track. After her divorce, she wasn’t sure if her sweet family would ever be the same. But things are good––right up until her ex’s spirited toddler lands on Felicity’s doorstep. If the universe is going to throw lemons at her, thank God she has her best friend, Graham, to help her make lemonade out of them. How did she never notice how kind and sexy he is?

Graham is still recovering from his wife’s death years ago and trying to help his teen daughter get her life together. Who is he kidding? His daughter hates him. Forget lemons––he’s got the entire lemon tree. So when Felicity suggests they join forces and help each other, he’s all in. And suddenly he can’t stop thinking about her as more than just a friend. Too bad their timing couldn’t be worse…

Because life rarely goes as planned. Luckily there are many different kinds of family to hold you together and lift you up…plus maybe even a little love between friends.

Here’s my take on this story. Felicity is some sort of heiress, whose parents gave her their extremely large, 100-year-old home to live in after her husband leaves her for another, much younger woman. Who happens to be pregnant. She also has enough funds to completely renovate the house. There is a mention of her running a family business, a drugstore, but it is just a brief mention and we never see her go to work. Ever. Instead, she is the quintessential stay-at-home mommy of teenagers, both of whom are good kids. The kids handle the divorce differently. The daughter is resigned and is happy her mom is there for her. The son is an angry young man, albeit one who adores his mother and tries not to give her any grief. Like most teens.

The ex-husband is a complete jerk. We never really get to meet him so all we know about him is that since he’s shacked up with the girlfriend and she has the baby, he pretty much blows off his first two kids and misses all the ball games, recitals and what have you that he’d been attending throughout their young lives. The day of his oldest daughter’s high school graduation, he doesn’t show up. Again. But this time he has a good excuse.

The ex, the girlfriend, and the baby were in a terrible car accident. The girlfriend dies, the baby has some broken bones and is in a coma, and the ex is being rushed to surgery. Before he goes, he asks Felicity to take the baby to raise. He’s a doctor and he knows he is not going to make it.

Meanwhile, Felicity’s sister Charity comes home. She has spent years in Europe as a tour guide, but she has an excellent reason for giving up that life and settling back in the tiny town of Pecan Valley, where she is gifted with a travel agency by a friend of her grandmother’s who wants to retire. Not that she goes to work, either.

The male protagonist is Graham. He is also a doctor, and was partners with Felicity’s ex. But when the ex went off the partnership ended. Meanwhile, Graham’s wife died of cancer, leaving him desolate. His teenage daughter is very angry at him and their relationship is troubled, to say the least. But at his former partner’s funeral, he remembers that they all used to be the best of friends. Felicity and Graham both need a friend now, but that friendship soon turns to more.

If you can get past logic and practicality and suspend your disbelief, the rest of the book is good. I liked the characters and enjoyed spending time with them. The ending is very rushed and every loose end is neatly tied up. If this is the first book of a series, my hunch is that Charity will be next and then Felicity’s daughter. There is definite potential here and I am looking forward to more from this author.

5/2020 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

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From the publisher:

A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.

They’re polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.

A little side note here. The beach of the title is on Lake Michigan, which I saw for the first time when I was in Chicago last year. I have heard people talk about beaches on lakes, and never understood it. Growing up on the east coast, to me the beach is the shore of an ocean. The Atlantic  Ocean, or the Pacific Ocean in the US. I even questioned the validity of a beach on the Gulf of Mexico. But once I saw the great lake, I understood. You can’t see the other side! There are waves! And sand! It’s a beach, I was wrong.

The main characters, Gus and January, are both writers. They have history together. They were in college together, and January always had a bit of a crush. They almost hooked up one night at a party, but she is sure he doesn’t remember her.

Now they are neighbors. January has recently lost her father, which opened a big old can of worms. Turns out he had a mistress and another home on Lake Michigan. He left January the house, but she is frustrated because she can’t ask him anything, and her mother refuses to talk about it.

Gus has his own issues, and he very, very slowly reveals himself to January. Or at least she thinks he does. As we find out more about Gus, we can’t help but root for him. He is a man in desperate need of love, of being important to someone. And January may just be the one he needs.

There are some very funny moments, and some very sad ones as well before everything comes together. I had a couple of minor quibbles with it (I’m not going to spoil anything) but ultimately it was a very enjoyable read. This didn’t feel like a stereotypical romance to me, and that is a good thing. If you like a little depth before your happily ever after, this is a terrific read.

5/2020 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

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From the publisher:

He broke her heart. Now it’s her turn.

Rachel has just seen her husband David kissing another woman and she knows her marriage is over.

To make matters worse, she has just discovered that her romantic destination wedding wasn’t exactly legal.

No marriage means no divorce. Heartbroken and angry, she and her friend hatch a foolproof plan:

Step one – Make David fall back in love with her.
Step two – Marry him
Step three – Divorce him and break his heart.

Simple enough.

Rachel just has to be careful that she doesn’t get swept up in  the romance and end up falling in love with him…

I do love a good romcom, print or film. This one is a UK publication and kicks off tomorrow. You can still buy it if you are in the US, just use the link below.

Rachel was a complex character and I really liked that. She was not perfect and we got to see her flaws and her good points. David, on the other hand,  I think we are predisposed to hate him but even he becomes likeable in the telling of this story.

The point of view occasionally shifts from Rachel to David, and that sets up the real story; there’s her side, his side, and somewhere in the middle lies the truth. There are a lot of really funny bits sprinkled throughout, which I really enjoyed. But there is also a lot of angst because, at its heart, this is a story about infidelity which I personally have a hard time with. But I liked how the story flowed and somehow I even found myself wanting to see them get past all their troubles.

This is a debut novel, which bodes well for us readers. I expect the next book will be even better.

4/2020 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

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From the publisher:

An office attraction becomes something more when they’re off the clock in this delightful romantic comedy by the USA Today bestselling author of Not the Girl You Marry.

State attorney Bridget Nolan is successful in all aspects of her life—except romance. After breaking up with her longtime boyfriend, she’s been slow to reenter the dating scene. To be honest, she has more important things to do like putting bad guys behind bars. But with her brother’s wedding right around the corner, she suddenly needs a date and fast. Lucky for Bridget, the legal intern is almost done with his program.

Matt Kido is dumbstruck by Bridget—total love at first sight—but there’s one problem. She’s totally off-limits while she’s his boss. But the moment he no longer reports to her, Matt decides to take a chance. An impulsive decision takes them to Las Vegas where, as the saying goes, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

Unless you put a ring on it.

I read my first Andie Christopher book last year, and while I didn’t love it, I liked it well enough to read another. I think this one is better; I liked it a lot.

Matt was an interesting character of the millionaire type. For some reason, a lot of romances feature millionaire/billionaire men (thank you, Fifty Shades of Grey) and they often are very one dimensional. That is not the case here. I liked this character’s development as a person, more than just the money he had. In fact, the money rarely came up until his mother got involved.

An only child, Matt is a student in law school who has broken up with his socialite girlfriend after she told him she was only with him for what he could do for her. There was more, but you get the idea. So when his summer internship would have put him in daily contact with her, he ditched it and took an internship with the state attorney. Bridget is assigned to mentor him in hopes that his success will lead to her getting a grant from his family’s foundation. It’s a bit messy but real.

Matt is instantly enamored of the strong, brilliant Bridget but quickly realizes that she doesn’t think much of him and his player reputation. But his hard work slowly changes her opinion, not to mention she finds him devastatingly attractive. They slowly form a friendship of sorts, and he agrees to help her out as her date for the upcoming wedding she must attend.

They end up in Vegas for the bachelor/bachelorette parties, and somehow end up married. Matt’s mom is livid and wants an immediate annulment, but their wedding night precludes that possibility.

There is nothing new here in this plot, but the story is told well, with a lot of laughs and a lot of heart. It would make a great movie! On Netflix, not Hallmark, because of the sex. If you want a fun read with a happy ending, look no further.

4/2020 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

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From the publisher:

Fall in love with this hilarious and heartwarming USA Today bestselling romantic comedy that LJ Shen calls “an absolute treat.”

Once again, I read the sequel before the original book. In this case, I have to plead ignorance. I knew there was another book by this author, but I didn’t research enough to find out that one is a sequel to the other. This is the first book, and I really wish I had read it first. So much so that once I finished it, I went back and read the second book again. It was no hardship, I loved that book and I loved this one as well. It just would have been so much better if I hadn’t known what was going to happen. As it was, I couldn’t put this book down until I got to where I knew it was going.

I don’t mean to sound so cryptic, but I don’t want to ruin this for anyone else. So do yourself a favor, read THIS book before The Happy Ever After Playlist. Consider yourself warned.

This is the debut novel of a Food Network baking champion. I don’t watch much Food Network anymore, and I rarely watch any of their competitions so I was not familiar with Abby Jimenez. Doesn’t matter, the content of the books is fairly baking-free, other than a cute shout out to her bakeries which I wouldn’t have noticed at all except I am that weirdo who reads every single page of a book, including dedications, author’s notes, etc.

Finally, to this book. It is a terrific debut, with well-developed characters and the type of restrained drama that never goes over the top, so it stays in the land of the believable. There are some very funny, laugh out loud scenes and some heartbreaking ones as well. The meet-cute is adorable, the secondary characters all play their parts to perfection, and there is enough heat to make it fun but not enough to scare away those who don’t want too much sex in their novels. And there is a dog.

I am a compulsive reader, but with this pandemic and all that encompasses, I have been having trouble reading. I have started probably half a dozen books, maybe more, (definitely more) that I couldn’t finish. Not because they weren’t good, but because I couldn’t concentrate. Abby Jimenez, I thank you for getting me back to reading again. It’s like these books restarted my reading brain or something. I read the second book, then the first, then the second again, and I’ve read a book a day since. Back to normal, so yay!

It’s not just me, either. A lot of people loved this book:

Read this book, then read this book. You’re welcome!

4/2020 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

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From the publisher:

From the USA Today bestselling author of The Friend Zone comes a fresh romantic comedy full of “fierce humor and fiercer heart” about one trouble-making dog who brings together two perfect strangers. (Casey McQuiston, New York Times bestselling author of Red, White & Royal Blue)

Let me start by saying that I LOVED THIS BOOK. Yes, I’m shouting.

I’ve been having trouble reading lately, my mind wanders as I worry about everything and everyone. But this book sucked me in and I just about cried when I turned the last page. I wanted to stay with these characters – they are interesting and fun and damaged and thoroughly brought to life on the page. Sloan and Jason go through so much to get to their happily ever after, or in this case, “happy ever after,” that I just added them to my list of people I worry about until they got there. Did I mention how this book just completely sucked me in?

The meet-cute is a two-parter. Sloan finds a dog running around a busy road so she stops, and the next thing she knows, the dog has leapt through her sunroof and literally landed in her lap. He is a very well trained dog, and a breed I was not familiar with, and a hunting dog. The hunting stuff didn’t bother me at all, probably because there wasn’t any, just talk about Sloan’s blog of wild game recipes. But it was something that Jason and Sloan bonded over. She tries to find the owner and luckily, the dog, Tucker, is tagged. So she calls the number and leaves a message. Every day. For two weeks. By then she’s in love with Tucker and pissed at the owner and she decides the dog is now hers. And then Jason calls.

They get to know one another first by texting, and then by talking on the phone. Turns out Jason is halfway around the world, and Sloan agrees to give Tucker back if Jason can prove he loves the dog. Which he does. So the dog brings them together, and that kind of storyline always works for me. Weeks later, Jason comes home and they have their first real meeting, and fireworks. Sloan has been in a depression for two years, since her fiance died in a motorcycle/drunk driving accident. There is an author’s note at the end of the book about this type of depression that I had never heard of, and I’m glad she included it. And that is all I’m going to tell you about the story because YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK!

The titular playlist is compiled from each chapter’s title, a song title, and band, and to be honest, I never heard of most of them. On occasion, I heard of the band but not the song, and one song but not the (fictional) singer. It didn’t matter in the least, although the author does provide the complete playlist at the end of the book for people who want to listen. I’m assuming it’s available on Spotify or Pandora or something?

I don’t know much about the life of rock stars. I am not especially interested in pop culture. I don’t know who most of the people are in People Magazine these days. So I was kind of surprised by how much I loved this book. Maybe it is based on someone famous, I have no idea and it doesn’t matter.

Jimenez has written a terrific story that is bound for my best books of the year list. Don’t miss it!

4/2020 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

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From the publisher:

Where can you turn when the world turns against you? When Elizabeth Barnes’ life fell apart she never imagined that she’d be rescued by a new friend on four paws.

The plan was simple: Elizabeth would ignore the fact that she was unjustly fired from her dream job, fly across the pond to settle an unexpected inheritance in her father’s home country and quickly return to reclaim her position among the Silicon Valley elite.

But when Elizabeth stumbles upon an abandoned puppy, she’s shocked to realize that her brief trip to England might turn into an extended stay. Her strict itinerary is upended completely by the pup’s dogged devotion, and soon the loveable puppy helps her to connect with a tight-knit community of new friends on two legs and four, from the aunt and uncle she didn’t know existed, to a grumpy coffee shop owner to two very opinionated sheep. Along the way Elizabeth is confronted by long-kept family secrets, hard truths about her former life and a new romance that might lead her to question everything she knows about love. Because sometimes rescue magic happens on both ends of the leash.

Is this not the cutest cover ever?? The book is just as cute, especially if you like British romcoms –  and I do.

Elizabeth, or Bess as she is automatically christened in the UK, is a social media driven, San Francisco start-up, worker bee at the top of her game. Until she gives an interview and spills the tea, as it were. It costs her everything, her job, her stock options, her reason for being. So when a relative she never heard of tells her she has an inheritance, she figures why not and hops across the pond.

She never figured on falling in love – with her new family, the small, country town, the puppy she rescues, or the best looking man she’s ever seen. These characters – including the animals – come to life on the page, as does the location, and I never wanted to leave. But alas, I eventually had to turn the last page.

If you want a feel good read, and right now I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t, do yourself a favor and spend a few hours with this lovely book. Highly recommended!

4/2020 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™