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
Excerpt/Sneak Peek

✍🏻 I fell in love with What Happens at the Lake, the grump/sunshine neighbor story, from Vi Keeland. Check out the sneak peek here! ✍🏻

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Title: What Happens at the Lake
Author: Vi Keeland
Genre: Standalone Contemporary Romance
Trope: Grumpy-Sunshine
Release Date: January 15, 2024
Take a sneak peek at WHAT HAPPENS AT THE LAKE.
You know you want to…

She smelled like damn summer.

And it pissed me off.
Plus, I was tired from a shitty night’s sleep. I’d tossed and turned thinking about Little Miss Home Improvement wearing nothing but a pair of denim short overalls and work boots—no shirt, no socks, definitely no bra or underwear.
Josie hopped down from the last two steps on the ladder. “Can I ask you something?”
“What?”
“Are you always this grumpy in the morning?”
“I’m not grumpy.”
“No? So this is what? Your idea of a sparkling personality? I asked if your coffee was okay, and you grunted at me.”
“That wasn’t a grunt. That was a yes.”
Josie made a short, deep noise that sounded like a pig.
I arched a brow. “Is that supposed to be me?”
She made the sound again, this time adding some monkeylike arm movements and jumping around. “Gronk.”
“Cute.”
She jumped again. “Gronk. Gronk.”
I tried not to react, but she was just too damn adorable.
Josie pointed at my face. “There it is again. The elusive Mr. Grumpy Pants smile. It’s kind of…dare I say…nice.” She made an exaggerated gasping sound and covered her mouth. “Oh no. I hope it’s not too painful.”
“Alright, wiseass. I get the point. How about you take your oinking ass out front and grab one of the small two by fours I left on the porch? I’ll show you how to make an easy support to hold up the drywall while it gets screwed into the ceiling.”
Josie strutted to the door. The woman was wearing a white tank top and long, pale pink, flowy skirt to do construction. It looked like she was going on a picnic date, rather than hanging sheetrock—though the tank top hugged her in all the right places, and there was something about her collarbone that I couldn’t drag my eyes away from. She bent to pick up the wood out front, and the top of her tank gaped open, giving me a clear view down her shirt. I forced my head in the other direction, though my eyes managed to slant and continue looking.
“Jesus Christ,” I grumbled to myself. “I need to get the fu¢k out of here.”

★★★ 


Excited? We are too!

RELEASING
JANUARY 15th!

PRE-ORDER LINKS

Please note: There will not be an Amazon ebook pre-order, but it will be available on Amazon on release day.



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AUTHOR BIO

Vi Keeland is a #1 New York Times, #1 Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling author. With millions of books sold, her titles are currently translated in twenty-seven languages and have appeared on bestseller lists in the US, Germany, Brazil, Bulgaria, Israel, and Hungary. Three of her short stories have been turned into films by Passionflix, and two of her books are currently optioned for movies. She resides in New York with her husband and their three children where she is living out her own happily ever after with the boy she met at age six.

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Cover Reveal

✍🏻 A fan of single dad/nanny romance with a huge helping of romantic suspense? Then check out this gorgeous cover for the next story in Catherine Cowles’s The Lost & Found series, Ashes of You! Who’s been ready for Lawson’s book? This READER!!! ✍🏻

professorromance

USA Today bestseller, Catherine Cowles, has revealed the covers for the next suspenseful small town romance in her bestselling Lost & Found series, coming February 8th!

✔️ Single Dad x Nanny

✔️ Age Gap

✔️ Missed Connections

✔️ Touch Her and D!e Vibes

✔️ Serial Unaliver

✔️ Slow Burn

✔️ Forced Proximity

✔️ Found Family

Pre-Order Now ➝ 

eBook: https://geni.us/AshesofYouAmzn

Audio, Narrated by Ava Erickson & Sebastian York: https://geni.us/AshesofYouAudio

Cover Design by Hang Le

Photography by Lauren Perry

 

Five years ago, I nearly lost everything. But there was a glimmer of hope on that darkest night. There was him—a stranger I could never forget.

Now, I’m finally getting the fresh start I’ve longed for. But when I show up to interview for a nanny position in the small mountain town, the single dad has startlingly familiar blue eyes.

Eyes that have haunted my dreams for the past five years.

Lawson Hartley is everything I know I can’t have. Older, handsome, and my boss. Not to mention the shadows in his eyes that tell me he has demons, too.

Still, he seems to understand me better than anyone I’ve ever met. So gentle and careful of my scars, yet somehow making me believe I’m stronger than I ever thought possible.

And when his lips touch mine, I’m lost.

We find what we’ve been missing in each other. But the terrors of my past aren’t done with me yet, and this time, Lawson might not be able to save me…

Pre-Order Now ➝ 

eBook: https://geni.us/AshesofYouAmzn

Audio, Narrated by Ava Erickson & Sebastian York: https://geni.us/AshesofYouAudio

About Catherine Cowles

Writer of words. Drinker of Diet Cokes. Lover of all things cute and furry, especially her dog. Catherine has had her nose in a book since the time she could read and finally decided to write down some of her own stories. When she’s not writing she can be found exploring her home state of Oregon, listening to true crime podcasts, or searching for her next book boyfriend.

Connect with Catherine

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2IEQXSw

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Website: https://www.catherinecowles.com/

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Top Reads

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Favorite Books of 2023 ✍🏻

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It’s time for the “best of” types of posts as we near the end of 2023. These stories left behind pieces of themselves. These are the types of stories that I continue to ruminate on as the year ends, and I’m pained to let them go for stories coming in 2024.

Thank you to all of these authors who have gifted us a bit of themselves in each of these books.

  • Ashley Jade’s The Choice
  • Jewel E. Ann’s Before Us
  • J.T. Geissinger’s Liars Like Us
  • K.A. Tucker’s The Simple Wild (and the rest of that series)
  • Lucy Score’s Things We Hide From the Light et al.
  • Catherine Cowles’s Whispers of You (the series is FANTASTIC, but this is my fav book of the series)
  • Kandi Steiner’s Meet Your Match (although I also loved book 2, Watch Your Mouth)
  • Jewel E. Ann’s Because of Her (she earned two spots…for good reason)
  • Meghan Quinn’s The Way I Hate Him (she released so many GREAT books this year, but this is my FAV of them all)
  • Sierra Simone’s Salt Kiss (erotic and engaging…still not over it. Can’t wait for the next book)
  • Helena Hunting’s Shattered Truths
  • Devney Perry’s Coach (I also ADORED Sable Peak from her The Edens series, but Coach nudged Mateo and Vera’s story just a bit)
  • Kristen Ashley’s Fighting the Pull (my fav River Rain story… Hale and Elsa are “chef’s kiss”)
  • Karla Sorensen’s The Best Laid Plans (a sleeper favorite)
  • Laney Hatcher’s Love Matched, a SmartyPants Romance story (a total surprise)
  • Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing (this one held me in its thrall)
Cover Reveal

✍🏻 I’m excited for a new series from Devney Perry. Crossroads, book 1 of her new Haven River Ranch series, is coming June 4th ✍🏻

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NEW SERIES FROM DEVNEY PERRY!!!

Devney Perry has a new series coming in 2024. Check out the gorgeous cover of the first book of her forthcoming Haven River Ranch series, Crossroads.

Coming June 4th

I met West Haven when I was eight years old. He taught me to play poker when I was nine, and we made paper airplanes together when I was eleven. He kissed me when I was sixteen. He was the best part about my family’s summer vacations to Montana. He was the boy who stole my heart. I was twenty-three when life ripped us apart.

Years later, I’m breaking my vow and returning to the ranch, not as a guest but its new owner. West might want me gone, but even he has to admit the only way to save his family’s legacy is with my help.

It’s not easy working side by side and facing those old memories. But this situation is only temporary. We’re at a crossroads. And as long as I don’t let myself fall in love with West Haven again, maybe this is our chance to put those ghosts to rest. Maybe this time we’ll finally be able to say goodbye.

PREORDER

Cover Reveal

✍🏻 Karla Sorensen’s Head Over Heels is coming January 24th. Check out this gorgeous cover, and get ready for all the sparks! ✍🏻

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HEAD OVER HEELS

Karla Sorensen

Release Date: January 24

 

WILL BE FREE IN KINDLE UNLIMITED

There’s only one course of action when your dad wants you to marry a clammy-handed wimp to make one of his board members happy—you get yourself stuck in an elevator with a hot stranger and have the steamiest make-out session of your life. Years of etiquette lessons went out the window thanks to Cameron Wilder, who managed to unleash my hidden bad girl with naught but his talented mouth and deliciously rough hands.

Afterwards, he went back to his small-town life, and I marched home to inform my dad there would be no business-centric nuptials. As punishment, he shipped me off to Sisters, Oregon and demanded I turn a healthy profit on a not-so-healthy property.

You see where I’m going with this—the buttoned-up city girl stuck in a small town hires a local builder to help her … and he’s the hot stranger from the elevator. Turns out, I have a weakness for the broad-shouldered nice guy who’s not so nice behind closed doors. Keeping things professional gets harder the longer I’m in town, until the only lesson I have left to learn is how to keep both our hearts from getting broken.

Pre-Order Link:

https://amzn.to/47vuHnt

Meet Karla Sorensen:

Karla Sorensen is an Amazon top 20 bestselling author who refuses to read or write anything without a happily ever after. When she’s not devouring historical romance or avoiding the laundry, you can find her watching football (British AND American), HGTV or listening to Enneagram podcasts so she can psychoanalyze everyone in her life, in no particular order of importance. With a degree in Advertising and Public Relations from Grand Valley State University, she made her living in senior healthcare prior to writing full-time. Karla lives in Michigan with her husband, two boys and a big, shaggy rescue dog named Bear.

For more information on Karla Sorensen and her books visit: http://www.karlasorensen.com/

Connect with Karla Sorensen:

http://www.karlasorensen.com/message

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new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Laney Hatcher’s Last on the List, the final book in the Bartholomew series ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: A-

Tropes: surprise pregnancy; best friend’s brother; sister’s best friend; banter; enemies to lovers to vibes; found family

Laney Hatcher has definitely saved her best for last. Last on the List, the final story of her Bartholomew series, offers an apt end to this touchingly irreverent historical romance series. The Bartholomew siblings have definitely captured my heart, and Silas and Mary are the cherry on the hot fudge of this delicious romantic sundae. 

Whenever you write a couple with the type of fiery banter that Mary and Silas engage in, you know the story will be engaging. Hatcher deftly carries us through their “hate to love,” fiery attraction, friends with benefits, and angsty romance. I loved the pacing of their journey even though Mary’s secrecy and want to protect Silas would frustrate any reader. Yet, this is the crux of the surprise pregnancy trope, and Hatcher allows us to rest in that tension for much of the book. She needs this space, however, to help Silas recognize his love for Mary (no surprise!), but even more, understand her background and its impact on Mary’s sense of self so he can love her the best. Even more, Hatcher grants them the space to learn to “see” the other better than anyone else. This takes a careful hand and decided storytelling to do it well, and Hatcher, in my opinion, has done it in Last on the List. 

The ending of this story is poetry as we say goodbye to the Bartholomew siblings while also celebrating who Mary and Silas have become as a couple and parents. Laney Hatcher has done nothing more than make me fall deeper in love with her brand of historical romance. Hoping for more stories from her soon.

In love and romance,

Professor A

Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Skye Warren’s White Lies, book 2 of her Smoke and Mirrors trilogy ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: B- / C+

Tropes: age gap; dark romance; small town vibes; found family; circus romance

Skye Warren’s White Lies is the second book of her newest Smoke and Mirrors trilogy. It features the commanding Logan and the beguiling Sienna embroiled in test after test of their love. White Lies handles the cliffhanger left at the end of book 1 of the series, Red Flags, but it inevitably leaves us on another one at the end of this story. 

I want to be frank. I struggled with White Lies. I love Skye Warren’s brand of dark romance, and I’ve read most, if not all, of her book list. I’ve been consumed with her Tanglewood world romances in the past, and I will never forget the impact of those stories on my sense of dark romance. I share this because I will continue to read her even though White Lies is one of the most inconsistent stories I’ve read from her. It felt cobbled together, and there were transitions between certain chapters that slowed her narrative pacing. Several chapters of White Lies were repetitive: Logan asking for forgiveness and Sienna vacillating between continuing to distrust him or granting it. Warren tethers Logan and Sienna together with $ex, and it’s difficult to understand and accept Logan’s undying love for her. In a word, White Lies felt rushed. 

Here’s the thing: I want to love this trilogy (it’s my first one set in the realm of a circus, and that intrigues me), but thus far, I’ve been underwhelmed by it. I will continue to read Skye Warren because I know she’ll pull it all together in Black Sheep. I was simply disappointed with White Lies. Sienna and Logan’s story deserves better.

In love and romance,


Professor A

new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Jolie Vines’s Save Her from Me, book 2 of the McRae Bodyguards series ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: B

Tropes: bodyguard MMC; close proximity; romantic suspense; brother’s best friend; band of brothers; found family

Jolie Vines’s Save Her from Me provides another exciting story in her McRae Bodyguards series. Jackson, her bodyguard MMC, and Ariel, the FMC with a streak of moxie and independence, create a combustible romance from its very first chapter. Vines has deftly and consciously progressed in her capacity to write an erotic story. In her journey as a romance writer, she has developed a distinct writing voice: creating reticent heroes who fall deeply for their heroines at almost first glance and heroines who find themselves under the protection and love of their partner. 

What I loved:

*The chemistry and reticent connection between Ariel and Jackson. This provides the energy of Vines’s romance.

*the connections between current and past characters in the world of the McRaes. Getting peeks of former McRae heroes and heroines reminds us of this intricately woven universe that Vines has carefully crafted. This is one of the many reasons Vines’s star has risen in romancelandia.

*the forward motion of this narrative. There is a resolution to the issue of Ariel’s father and the shadow who threatens her for most of the story.

What I thought could use a bit more work:

*There was an inconsistency in Jackson and Ariel’s progression at times. One minute, there appeared to be a path forward which becomes erased by the overthinking of the other one. 

*The resolution to the story felt rushed. It seemed like an easy resolution that could have been meted out sooner. Ariel held the power all along, meaning she could have resolved her confinement sooner. Granted, we would not have been gifted Jackson and Ariel’s story, but this underscores the quick remedy to the issue of her father.

Jolie Vines continues to wow her readers crafting romances in a beloved world. This newest series offers reticent MMCs who can’t help but fall hard for their FMCs. Her Save Her from Me ties together a swoony romance, a community of people who fight for each other, and an edge-of-your-seat romantic suspense into one. I have been honored to read her since almost the beginning, and she continues to grab my attention with her storytelling.

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release

✍🏻 K.A. Tucker’s newest addition to her wildly addictive series, The Wolf Hotel series, is HERE. Run and grab Own Me for more Abbi and Henry. ✍🏻

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Own Me by K.A. Tucker is now live! 

Own Me is Book Five in the highly addictive forbidden romance The Wolf Hotel series.

Eight months ago, I was a naive, small-town farm girl nursing a shattered heart. Then hotel billionaire Henry Wolf picked me up off the ground (literally), and my entire life changed.
Now, I live in a luxurious Manhattan penthouse, and I’m starting my first company while planning a beautiful wedding to the man of my dreams.
I knew these first months would bring plenty of drama. I expected the savage media attention surrounding our engagement, and I braced myself for Mama’s theatrics about the wedding.
But nothing could have prepared me for the big secret that just stormed through our front door, altering the course of our future.

Own Me should be read after Tempt Me, Break Me, Teach Me, and Surrender to Me.

Download today or read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited

https://geni.us/OwnMezon

Add to Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3rZuSrD

Meet K.A. Tucker

K.A. Tucker writes captivating stories with an edge.

She is the internationally bestselling author of over thirty books, including Ten Tiny Breaths, The Simple Wild, and the Fate & Flame series, Until It Fades, Say You Still Love Me, and Keep Her Safe. Her books have been featured in national publications including USA Today, Globe & Mail, Suspense Magazine, Publisher’s Weekly, Oprah Mag, and First for Women.

K.A. Tucker lives outside of Toronto. Learn more about K.A. Tucker and her books at https://www.katuckerbooks.com/

Connect with Kathleen

Website: https://www.katuckerbooks.com/

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new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Devney Perry’s Sable Peak, the final The Edens series romance ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: A

Tropes: unrequited love; small town romance; found family

Without a doubt, Devney Perry’s Sable Peak, the final book of her The Edens series, is phenomenal. In totality, this series has been a breath of fresh air in romance reading over the past year as it focuses on a generational family, the central focus of a small town in Montana. But Sable Peak did something that the other books in the series, even more than the other books in Perry’s booklist, don’t: change her formula.

For the most part, Perry follows a pretty standard 3 act structure with some type of separation of her MMC and FMC at the 80% mark. Many romance authors follow this narrative structure, and we, the readers, love it…except that it can be tiresome. With Sable Peak, Perry’s structure still follows a 3 act structure, but the packaging looks a bit different. Add to it the unrequited love of Vera, an exceptionally complex character in her stable of characters, and it makes for emotional peaks and valleys between Mateo, her MMC, and Vera. Perry first creates the tension through Vera’s point of view when she realizes Mateo only sees her as a friend or sister-figure. Perry stays away, at the beginning of the story, from flipping between Vera’s and Mateo’s points of view, instead building the tension of her story solely through Vera’s point of view. I found it compelling. Once the inciting incident begins, the story between Vera and Mateo ignites and turns into the type of story we love from Perry. Adding in the complication of Vera’s relationship with her father simply adds another layer of tension to the story, actually drawing Vera and Mateo closer together. 

Everything you love about a Devney Perry romance is found in Sable Peak: a sweet, yet spicy romance set in a small-town setting, a family that loves beyond its members, and an ending that steals your breath as her FMC and MMC find their way to an epic happily-ever-after. This time, Devney Perry broke her mold a bit, and it worked for her (at least it did for this reader). Here’s to hoping for more story experimentation while offering the type of romances we expect from her.

In love and romance,

Professor A