From the publisher:

A couple who broke up months ago pretend to still be together for their annual weeklong vacation with their best friends in this glittering and wise new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.

Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple since they met in college—they go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobster and rolls. Except, now—for reasons they’re still not discussing—they don’t.

They broke up five months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.

Which is how they find themselves sharing a bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blissful week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.

Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They can’t stand to break their friends’ hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week…in front of those who know you best?

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by BuzzFeed ∙ Paste Magazine ∙ Elle ∙ Southern Living ∙ SheReads ∙ Culturess ∙ Medium ∙ Her Campus ∙ Readers Digest ∙ Zibby Mag and more!

“Once again, Henry dazzles and delights by brilliantly deploying her considerable skills in comic timing and crafting characters with relatable, realistically messy lives. Effortlessly toggling between the present-day fauxmance playing out between her protagonists and the origins of their love a decade earlier, Happy Place is a romance that delivers on both style and substance.” —Booklist (starred review)

“A wistfully nostalgic look at endings, beginnings, and loving the people who will always have your back.”—Kirkus Reviews

“This sexy and profoundly romantic novel will satisfy fans of best-selling Henry’s thrilling trademark mix of witty banter and intensely emotional storylines.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“Exes must pretend they’re still together in this delightful Summery rom-com from bestseller Henry…This has the makings of a rom-com classic.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

https://amzn.to/40WPFIl

I’ve read Henry’s last few books, and all were excellent, but I think may be her best yet. It’s certainly her most emotional read to date.

Harriet and Wyn have been together for years, and got engaged several months prior to the start of the book. They have a group of friends they are close to; in fact, that’s how they met – Harriet’s best friend and Wyn’s best friends were roommates, and along with two other couples, they have been meeting at this beach house in Maine every summer for years. But the house is being sold, so their two best friends plan a last week-long party, culminating with their wedding.

What Harriet and Wyn haven’t told their friends is that several months earlier, they broke up. Harriet was devastated; she only got a four-minute phone call and a box of her stuff delivered a few days later. She ends up blocking him on her phone just so she can stop checking it every few minutes to see if he has changed his mind.

They met in college and moved to San Francisco when Harriet scored an internship in neurosurgery there. Wyn barely got through college and is working in a bookstore. Then Wyn’s dad dies suddenly, and Wyn is devasted and depressed for months. When his mom falls ill with Parkinson’s disease, Wyn moves home to Montana to care for her. Harriet & Wyn figure they’ll do long distance for a year or so until his sister finishes college and can come home to help out their mom. But not everything goes according to plan, and he dumps her. When the invitation to the last week at the house in Maine comes, their friends refuse to take no for an answer. They both agree to go and, as always, share a room – but this time, instead of the room with two single beds, they get the room with one big bed. Harriet is far from over him, but she doesn’t realize that Wyn isn’t over her, either. This week they are forced to spend together with their best friends will prove to be challenging in a myriad of ways.

I loved the relationship between all six of these friends and how they formed their own family, especially as several of them come from unhappy homes. We learn their backstories and see how they coupled up. There is some humor throughout the book but more drama and angst, and I was so caught up in their lives that I could not put this book down. This is an engrossing romance with enough ups and downs and emotional entanglements to make me incredibly anxious until the requisite happy ending – I couldn’t figure out how they would work it out until they showed me. Another excellent read from a terrific author!

4/2023 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

HAPPY PLACE by Emily Henry.‎ Berkley (April 25, 2023). ISBN:‎ 978-0593441275. 400 p.

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From the publisher:

Katie Collins has barely ever left her tiny Irish village of Ennisbawn. Why would she? With its tightknit community, friendly local pub, surrounded by glistening lakes and perfectly mysterious forests, it’s a place of peaceful beauty.

Or it was peaceful. Until Callum Dempsey turned up. Part of a hot-shot (and, Katie has to admit, hot is annoyingly apt for him…) development team with zero eye for beauty or charm, he’s not only building a hideous hotel just outside the village, he’s also just announced a plan to knock down Ennisbawn’s only remaining pub. To make way for a view from the golf course.

It’s the final blow to the village and the last straw for Katie, who refuses to let her home-from-home disappear. The pub is her life – her job, but also her last connection to her parents, who had met at Ennisbawn’s once-famous matchmaking festival that was held in the grounds.

But, after being laughed off the building site in her best flannel pyjamas for demanding the builders leave, Katie decides enough is enough and hatches a plan. She’s going to revive the matchmaking festival, save the pub, and single-handedly bring the town back to life again.

She might even help her two best friends find love as well. Since, heck, what’s another project when you’re taking on the world’s hottest, evilest man?

But what Ireland’s newest matchmaker doesn’t know is that even when someone’s really not your type on paper, love might be a little bit more than just a formula…

A gorgeously escapist and utterly hilarious small town romcom perfect for fans of Emily Henry, Sophie Kinsella and Christina Lauren.

https://amzn.to/3ZO9UXh

I’ve read a couple of Walsh’s books, and she is now firmly in the “must read” category. I loved the setting of this new book, a small village in Ireland. Katie is a bartender in the only pub in town, but that is about to change.

Someone has bought up all the land surrounding this village, and they are trying to buy the rest of it. The plan is a huge hotel and resort, and the story opens with construction underway, which means lots of loud trucks rumbling past Katie’s house way too early in the morning to suit her. Her late night job means she is not getting much sleep, and she finally cracks. She goes marching down to the construction site in her pajamas (!) to tell off the boss. Callum is the site supervisor, but he reports to Jack. She tells them both off and much to her surprise, the next day no trucks wake her up.

Turns out it was Callum who redirected the trucks to another entrance. The big boss, Jack is more interested in creating pretty brochures and making propaganda videos. Callum keeps showing up where Katie is, and eventually she softens towards him. Then she gets some really bad news from her boss at the pub; there is some weird kind of covenant on the property, and that means the pub is now being sold to the developer. Katie is incensed and decides to take matters into her own hands.

This small town used to be known for their matchmaking festival each year, but it has dwindled to pretty much nonexistent. The only thing remaining is the wishing well behind the pub. Katie starts corralling her friends and neighbors into helping create a big festival, in hopes of drumming up support to keep the pub from being torn down.

Callum and Katie form a friendship, but he wants more. She feels like she is too busy to get more involved, but the more he helps her, the warmer her feelings grow towards him. Eventually, Callum and Katie realize that this is a relationship worth keeping.

This is an enemies-to-lovers, slow burn kind of romance with a bit of steam and a lot of laughs. I really enjoyed this romcom, and if you like these kinds of small town romances, please pick up a copy! It’s a good read, entertaining, and the characters really drew me in. This was a one night read for me, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

4/2023 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

PS: Listen to a sample here:

THE MATCHMAKER by Catherine Walsh. Bookouture (April 18, 2023). ISBN:‎ 978-1803149165. 346p.

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The Kinloch Series, Book 5

From the publisher:

Enjoy this steamy Scottish romcom series by award-winning romantic comedy author Evie Alexander…

Say “I do” to Scotland’s wedding of the year!

Wedding bells are finally ringing for Rory and Zoe! But setting a date and saying yes to the dress is a lot more complicated when their mothers are mortal enemies and Rory’s stepfather is a Hollywood star with a death wish.

And if their families weren’t complicated enough, their friends are determined to make the bachelor and bachelorette parties ones they will remember forever – or desperately try to forget…

A castle, a cast of thousands, a superstar who’s lost the plot, and an unlikely stripper. Can Rory and Zoe unravel the tangles in time to tie the knot, or is eloping the only answer?

Get your glad rags on and hold onto your hats as it’s time to unleash matrimonial madness!

Wedding Games is a steamy, laugh-out-loud, grumpy sunshine, steamy, small town romantic comedy novella, with all your favorite characters from the Kinloch series and a guaranteed happily-ever-after! It can be read as a standalone but is best enjoyed after the other books in the Kinloch series.

https://amzn.to/40Gr3DB

This is one of the rare series that I’ve actually read in order, since the beginning. That’s mostly due to Evie Alexander being so proactive in getting her books reviewed. Other authors should take note!

This is obviously the last book of the series, and while it certainly can be enjoyed as a standalone, it is more meaningful when read in order. There is not a whole lot of plot here; it’s basically the days leading up to the last wedding in this series.

Rory and Zoe have been dancing around their romance almost since the beginning of the series – from what I can remember! The big day is fast approaching and they are both just over the moon happy. Until the small wedding Rory wanted balloons into the society wedding his mother – and his station as the Earl of Kinloch – demands. There is the requisite bachelor party, the hen do (bachelorette party,) and of course, the rehearsal dinner. Whatever can go awry does, but it is all over-the-top funny and everything I’ve come to expect in this series.

If you haven’t read any of the books in this series, then this probably isn’t the book for you. But if you’ve read at least one of the earlier books, go for it! But only if you want something with all the good feels – sweet, sexy, romantic. and hilarious. I’m sad to see this series end, but there is a novella, One Night in Foxbrooke, coming out next week that introduces a new series, so I’m happy. Watch for the review soon!

4/2023 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

WEDDING GAMES by Evie Alexander. Emlin Press (March 25, 2023). ISBN:‎ 978-1914473197. 156p.

Kindle