Promoting and reviewing romance novels one book at a time
Author: professorromance
I teach students to write for college. I love to read writers who write romance. Why not review and promote the writing of people who love to write romance? Win-win for me
Fallen Crest Campout, an all-new not-to-be-missed Fallen Crest and The Crew series crossover novella by New York Times bestselling author Tijan, is available now!
Sam and Mason return to Fallen Crest for a camping trip.
They head north, meeting up with a few friends from Roussou and enjoy a night of booze, some leapfrogging, and there’s a small therapy session to air out some tension in the group.
Empty chair, anyone?
Enjoy a novella crossover between the Fallen Crest series and the Crew series!
Download your copy today or read for FREE in Kindle Unlimited!
Tijan is a New York Times Bestselling author that writes suspenseful and unpredictable novels. Her characters are strong, intense, and gut-wrenchingly real with a little bit of sass on the side. Tijan began writing later in life and once she started, she was hooked. She’s written multi-bestsellers including the Carter Reed Series, the Fallen Crest Series, and the Broken and Screwed Series among others. She is currently writing a new YA series along with so many more from north Minnesota where she lives with a man she couldn’t be without and an English Cocker she adores.
I’m fairly certain once Willa and Everett were introduced in Nora Everly’s Crime and Periodicals that readers were rabid for Willa’s story. Everly does a superb job of building the suspense around her background that, at least, this reader was ready for the second Monroe boys book, Carpentry and Cocktails. And Everly doesn’t disappoint with this story. Not in the least.
Carpentry and Cocktails offers up the burgeoning relationship between Willa, the bartender/server for Genie’s, and Everett, one of the Monroe boys who works for his father’s company, Monroe & Sons. Everett is an accomplished carpenter who has imagined his life-long nerd dream in opening a comic/gaming/role-playing store in Green Valley. He longs for his tenant, Willa (she lives in his basement apartment) from afar. As the days pass, Willa and Everett grow closer and struggle to deny their feelings for each other. However, Willa’s past influences her present as she believes she doesn’t want to fall in love with anyone ever again. Unfortunately, Everett’s kindness, physique, and care of her make denying her interest in him difficult. As a self-professed nerd, Everett endeavors for a relationship, but has been rejected several times before. He believes he can’t fully “be himself” with most women until Willa. She accepts his nerd interests, and he can be true to himself with her. Unfortunately, Willa’s past, her fears, and her insecurities threaten any future with Everett. Is a happy ending possible for these two nerds?
I’ve been reading several ARCs lately where the hero is a grumpy alpha-hole to the ultimate degree. I love the character construction of those heroes because the tension is built so tight that when the hero falls, the heroine brings him to his knees and he falls hard for her. My second favorite type of hero is a “good guy” hero who makes himself a “fool” for a woman. There is something noble in his want and need for her from early in the story. This type of hero must be patient because the heroine will unintentionally force him to work for her affection and love. Generally, this type of hero is the perfect heroic type: compassionate, caring, protective, and insightful. He will wait for her to recognize and accept the depth of his love for her, but his want for her won’t diminish; it will simply grow deeper. I equally adore this type of hero. He’s a lovely break from the emotionally-stunted, mean-spirited alpha-hole hero. And Everett embodies this heroic character. In fact, he will be the reason readers fall for this story. He is all of the traits I’ve outlined above, and he’s necessary for Willa’s journey. Her evolution is the foundation for Everly’s Carpentry and Cocktails, and Everett is the strength of her foundation. While he worries over Willa’s acceptance of his nerd persona, it is tertiary to Willa’s story of acceptance. Everly uses his fear of acceptance to show the gradation of this need as this is a central message of her book.
Like Everett, Willa has strived for acceptance through the want for love. Her past hurts stem from her mother’s inability to accept her daughter and show her unconditional love and her ex-husband’s manipulation. With these scars, Willa’s journey requires her to love herself first before seeking the love and approval of others. Everett recognizes this in her, and he patiently pours into her friendship as a means to aid her growth. It’s this evolution that becomes the power fo Everly’s story. Through Willa, Everly deftly acknowledges that we must find inner peace and love before we can pour our peace and love over another.
Quite honestly, while Willa and Everett consummate their relationship far sooner than I expected for this story, Everly carefully slows them down, crafting a romance that teeters more on the side of slow-burn. There is a sweetness that belies the $exiness of Willa and Everett’s burgeoning romance. The reader revels in the pictures that Everly crafts in her prose. I could see this story unfold easily, but I also wanted to see Everly’s intention behind it so I stalked her Pinterest board for it; it was exactly as I saw it. It takes a keen writer to do this.
I will say that, at times, there was a bit of space between her words. I’ve stated this before in other reviews. I believe there should be a melody or a musicality to writing. There’s a tempo. When that feels like stuttering, it can be distracting. There were moments in the story when the flow of the story felt a bit stilted. As Everly writes more, that feel for words on the page will flow more evenly. Again, this is minute in contrast to the big love between Will and Everett, where every moment is a Pinterest Board picture through Everly’s craftsmanship.
We all seek love. We want to be accepted and “seen.” This is the essential focus of Nora Everly’s Carpentry and Cocktails. It’s clear from the start that Willa’s hurts are our hurts; that people such as Everett can pour love into us to heal past wounds. All we need is to believe in the power of love to find us. Sometimes, it could be someone in our own basement apartment. In true SmartyPants Romance fashion, Nora Everly will charm your hearts out of your chests with Everett and Willa’s moving story of love.
Carpentry and Cocktails, an all-new heartwarming small-town romance from Nora Everly, is LIVE!
Everett Monroe can’t keep his eyes off his gorgeous tenant.
He’d like to put his hands on her too, but she’s prickly, closed-off, and gives new meaning to the word disgruntled. In other words, she’s his perfect match and he’ll do anything to make her see it too.
Willa Hill has finally left her teen runaway past behind and wants a fresh start—alone. Men are nothing but trouble and she’s had enough man-trouble to last a lifetime.
Too bad her irresistibly sexy, nerdy-hot landlord doesn’t agree.
When their mutual yearning becomes a white-hot fling and passion crosses carefully drawn, albeit one-sided boundaries, Everett finds himself in love and Willa finds herself in a pickle.
Because, unfortunately, when she returned to Green Valley, her problems came too.
When the past she escaped crashes into the future she finds herself wanting more than anything, will Willa stay in Green Valley?
Or will she run away again?
‘Carpentry and Cocktails’ is a full-length contemporary romance, can be read as a standalone, and is book #5 in the Green Valley Library series, Green Valley World, Penny Reid Book Universe.
Nora Everly is a lifelong bookworm. She started reading the good stuff once she grew tall enough to sneak the romance novels off the top of her mother’s bookshelf and it has been non-stop ever since.
Once upon a time she was a substitute teacher and an educational assistant. Now she’s a writer and stay at home mom to two small humans and one fat cat.
Nora lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family and her overactive imagination.
K. A. Linde’s The Hating Season is a compelling contemporary romance that tells the story of a “playboy” Upper Eastsider in New York and his PR guru who seeks to turn his image around from the “bad boy of the Upper East Side.” This is a “hate at first sight” type of romance, and K.A. Linde crafts that hateful but fiery chemistry between English and Court well. The power of this story lies in Linde’s ability to bring these seeming opposites together. At the beginning of her story, that task seems difficult because English and Court lack respect for each other. However, as all hate-to-love romances tend to go, nothing is as it seems. This is the case for The Hating Season, underscoring the idea that people’s judgments of us initially are never really true to the reality of that person.
From the start, Linde grabs her readers with the story. There is no holding back on introducing difficult moments into this book. As the story progresses, Linde continues to pull her reader into her story as English and Court’s chemistry grows and builds. Even more, The Hating Season is an ancillary story to Linde’s popular Cruel series and the first book of this Season series, The Lying Season. I find readers attach to a romance when they recognize former characters from other stories. While I hadn’t read the other series, Linde grabbed my attention through the introduction of the bigger Linde universe of characters, and I’m interested to read this other series after reading The Hating Season. All of these parts of her storytelling engage her readers in English and Court’s romance.
While the message of this story isn’t new to romancelandia, it’s power is a reminder that we all want to be seen and acknowledged as we are. English’s character is interesting, as she works in Public Relations. That Linde would use her experience in the book to illustrate the way that personas are manufactured for public consumption is a nod to her message. This is insightful and a testament to Linde’s careful plotting. Additionally, through the character of Court, Linde illustrates the consequences of living behind a mask. As Court and English battle against each other, through careful revelation, Linde illuminates common human behavior: “judging a book by its cover.” When English finally “sees” Court’s truth, the narrative shifts, and the hate between these two dissolves. It alleviates the tension until Linde uses other tertiary plotlines to build the tension again. One of the strengths of The Hating Season is the ebb and flow of its story as it embodies the message of looking deeper into someone before fully appraising them
There were times in the narration, however, where the story lost some of this power. It loses a bit of its musicality. I found my mind wandering at those times; however, Linde brings the reader back into her romance by offering more action. It is a small criticism, not impacting the overall perception too greatly.
I wanted to read the ARC for The Hating Season because I adore the ‘hate-to-love’ romantic trope. K.A. Linde succeeds in managing this trope well in the context of her newest book. I pined for the stories of the other characters as their backstories were revealed, and I found myself searching the synopses and reviews of those stories for details. For this reader, that curiosity is key. It means that Linde has done her job well of offering a story that piques my interest. After reading the bonus scene for her next book, The Breaking Season, you can count me in for more of Linde’s romances.
I’m hired to clean up his badboy image, which would’ve been easy if my life wasn’t falling apart.
First, I catch my movie star husband having an affair with his co-star. Then when I return to work, my job is at stake, because Court has gotten himself into trouble…again.
Instead of getting him back in line, I find myself falling for his charm. And into his bed. And against the wall. And, and, and…
Except Kensington charm shouldn’t work on me. Not when I’ve sworn to never ever sleep with a client.
I had good intentions.
I really did.
But we all know the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
K.A. Linde is the USA Today bestselling author of the Avoiding Series, Wrights, and more than thirty other novels. She has a Masters degree in political science from the University of Georgia, was the head campaign worker for the 2012 presidential campaign at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and served as the head coach of the Duke University dance team. She loves reading fantasy novels, binge-watching Supernatural, traveling, and dancing in her spare time.
She currently lives in Lubbock, Texas, with her husband and two super-adorable puppies.
“Trusting a man with your heart is the fastest road to devastation.”
Man, oh man (or Woman, oh Woman!) did I need a read like Annika Martin’s The Billionaire’s Fake Fiancee. When our minds are spinning from either boredom or news about our pandemic, we need a book that will allow our minds to rest, tickling our funny bones while challenging our ideas about people and the way they love. And Martin’s book? It does just that thing. You should know that Annika Martin is a must-read for me. Specifically, her rom-coms are the perfect combination of quirk, swoony yet temperamental heroes, and ball-busting heroines. I mean, this genre has this way of empowering women as the male characters seem the least enlightened, and that is refreshing as you read it. This book is no different.
Yes, Martin’s hero, Rex, is broodingly gorgeous, but he lacks an emotional maturity which undermines his ability to connect with people. Basically, the guy is in denial about how his actions affect others. Given that he is emotionally dense, Martin MUST craft a heroine who will turn him inside out, and she brilliantly creates Tabitha, her quirky, but emotionally insightful heroine. This woman is the ONLY woman who could “undo” Rex’s grumpy, spiteful, emotionally stunted hero.
To be very clear, I LOVE this couple. They are the perfect balance for each other. More importantly, these two are hiding in their lives. Rex conceals the pain of his past behind his overbearing work ethic, Yes, he’s a brilliant businessman, but his lifestyle is unsustainable in the long-term. Similarly (the other side of the “hiding” coin), Tabitha buries her hurts behind the mask of humor. The loveliness of this story is Rex and Tabitha’s abilities to recognize the truth in the other. My favorite parts of the book were all the ways that Rex noted how Tabitha used humor to lessen her problems and Tabitha’s ability to see the “real” Rex behind his grumpy bluster. I found myself highlighting these passages the most in the story because Martin shows us that, to love fully, we must push aside emotional walls to get at the heart of the person.
The humor of this story comes in the form of Rex and Tabitha’s banter. That Martin can craft compelling, fluid dialogue, while building their chemistry, illustrates her prowess at dialogue-building. This is whipsmart and entertaining. Even more, Tabitha is quite the character. As I mentioned before, she is a quirky ball-buster with the loves of Hello Kitty and soap operas. Martin integrates soap operas to both delight her reader, but offer up plot devices for her storytelling. This conspires to engage the reader in her story. Once I began The Billionaire’s Fake Fiancee, let’s just say that I didn’t put it down because I needed the resolution and happy ending for Tabitha and Rex.
I hated for Annika Martin’s newest book, The Billionaire’s Fake Fiancee, to end. Yes, her hero and heroine’s chemistry and storyline compel you through this book. More importantly, though, is the story’s ability to encourage us to let go of the past and seek out the people who will make us better people. This is the case for Rex and Tabitha. This book isn’t just about these two; Martin includes a cast of characters who will make you chuckle, sigh, and cry a little. But in the end, there is a guarantee that winds of change will have hit their course, and the future will be smooth sailing for Rex and Tabitha.
The Billionaire’s Fake Fiancée, a sexy romantic comedy by New York Times bestselling author, Annika Martin, is LIVE!
I’m no Prince Charming, and the last thing I want is a Cinderella.
My instructions were simple: scour the city for a fake fiancée who’s not my type at all. Have her on my jet Monday morning, dressed appropriately for a yacht vacation.
I need a woman believable enough to convince a certain client that I’ve changed my playboy ways…yet nothing like the supermodels and socialites I usually have on my arm.
Somebody too annoying to tempt me—no emotional entanglements, thank you very much. This is business only.
If she’s unfazed by my looks and wealth, all the better.
Should be easy. Right?
Apparently not, because my people go and hire Tabitha. My hairdresser.
What were they thinking? Yes, I said annoying, but I didn’t mean her, the most frustrating woman in the world.
Tabitha is sunshiny. She has a pet hamster. She loves Hello Kitty, and she gets under my skin like nobody else.
As if that’s not bad enough, the minute we step on deck, she thinks that certain people on the yacht are up to something shady—based completely on her soap opera knowledge.
She won’t listen when I tell her she’s being ridiculous.
But as the days go by, I find that we’re actually having fun. And our fake kisses are heating up. And suddenly her wild theories aren’t sounding so strange after all…
Annika Martin loves fun, dirty stories, hot heroes, and wild, dramatic everything. She enjoys hanging out in Minneapolis coffee shops with her writer husband, and also likes birdwatching at her bird feeder alongside her two stunningly photogenic cats, especially when she should be writing. She’s heavy into running, music, saving the planet, taking long baths, and consuming chocolate suckers. She’s worked a surprisingly large number of waitressing jobs, and has also worked in a plastics factory and the advertising trenches; her garden is total bee-friendly madness and her most unfavorite word is nosh or possibly fob. A NYT bestselling author, she has also written as RITA award-winning author Carolyn Crane.
Since 2015, LIFT 4 Autism has raised approximately $140,000 to benefit ASD families. All proceeds go to non-profit organizations serving the autism community. Now more than ever, we as a global community are uniting, even as we stay apart to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Auction organizers authors Ginger Scott and Kennedy Ryan, along with Kulture City, this year’s charitable partner, wanted to respond to the real needs of autism families during this incredibly challenging time. Kulture City will direct proceeds from the 2020 auction to a scholarship program for autism families struggling during COVID-19.
The online auction features signed paperbacks, hardcovers, full series sets, out-of-print covers, foreign editions, personal one-on-one Skype calls with some of your favorites . . . and MORE, all donated by authors, publishers, bloggers, readers. Just people who wanted to be a part of something to help autism families. In the past, some of our highest bidding items were tickets to sold-out author signings and in-demand book events. Of course, with social distancing, those have all been cancelled. To possibly compensate, several amazing authors, narrators and publishing professionals are auctioning off virtual chats! We’re hoping many readers will be enticed to bid on virtual chats with authors like LJ Shen, Tarryn Fisher, Beverly Jenkins, and Kristen Ashley, to name a few. To chat with all-star narrators like Zachary Webber, Shane East, Erin Mallon and more. Not to mention critiques and video chats with agents and editors. These are just a few items up for bid. We are incredibly grateful for every single item donated.
New York Times Bestselling Authors Penelope Ward & Vi Keeland
BLURB
My planned trip for two unexpectedly turned into a trip for one. Rather than let my breakup get me down, I packed my bags and decided a week at a luxury resort was just what I needed.
But one calamity after the next, and suddenly I was stuck without a hotel room, along with a few hundred other people.
It looked like my fancy vacation was about to turn into me sleeping on the hotel lobby floor.
Until I overheard a gorgeous man pretending to be someone he wasn’t in order to steal a reservation from a guest who hadn’t shown up yet.
When I realized there were two rooms, instead of calling him out, I pretended to be his sister. That’s how the story of “Milo and Maddie Hooker” began.
We were the Hookers.
My depressing trip quickly made a U-turn into an adventure.
My fake brother spent the next few days showing me around his hometown.
When it was time to leave, neither of us really wanted to go yet.
So, instead of flying back to our respective homes, we ventured on a road trip.
At every stop, we’d pick up souvenirs.
But as hot as our chemistry was, we never crossed the line.
Milo knew I’d just come out of a tough relationship and didn’t want to mess with a vulnerable woman.
So instead, at the end of our trip, we made a pact to meet again in three months.
It was always my intention to meet him.
But when I got back home, reality hit in a big way.
And I worried I may have lost my handsome stranger forever.
Was there a place for him in my future?
Or had the memory of him just become my favorite souvenir?
Love Under Quarantine, an all-new strangers-to-lovers romance from New York Times bestselling authors Kylie Scott and Audrey Carlan, is releasing May 5th and we have the stunning cover.
While the world is ravaged by a global pandemic, hotshot NFL running back Evan Sparks is locked in his own personal hell. With a career-ending scandal on his back, Evan hides out in his best friend’s empty San Francisco home, the full city shutdown locking him in a lonely twenty-story apartment in the sky.
Romance writer Sadie Walsh is having the worst case of writer’s block ever…until the incredible, muscular stranger staying next door gets her muse going strong. The pair of loners, never expecting to find a friend in all the madness, meet each day out on their balconies like a modern-day Romeo and Juliet.
Each new day brings unique challenges for the pair as they navigate the unknown and find solace together. They quickly figure out that as long as they have one another, they can handle anything.
Even falling in love under quarantine.
***
Writing together for the first time, New York Times bestselling authors Kylie Scott and Audrey Carlan team up to tell a story that not only is a beautiful escape during a trying time, but a true lesson on the power of humanity’s ability to survive. Through a sexy, hopeful, strangers-to-lovers romance, the authors prove with love, trust, and faith, we can conquer anything.
Cover Designer: Jena Brignola Photographer: Brian Kaminski
Meet the Authors:
About Kylie Scott
Kylie is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author. She was voted Australian Romance Writer of the year, 2013, 2014 & 2018, by the Australian Romance Writer’s Association and her books have been translated into eleven different languages. She is a long time fan of romance, rock music, and B-grade horror films. Based in Queensland, Australia with her two children and husband, she reads, writes and never dithers around on the internet.
Audrey Carlan is a #1 New York Times and International bestselling author. Her titles have appeared on USA Today and the Wall Street Journal. Audrey writes wicked hot love stories that have been translated in over thirty different languages across the globe. She is best known for the world-wide bestselling series Calendar Girl and Trinity.
She lives in the California Valley where she enjoys her two children and the love of her life. When she’s not writing, you can find her teaching yoga, sipping wine with her “soul sisters,” or with her nose stuck in a steamy romance novel.
