Pippa Grant’s newest romantic comedy is bliss. Pure unadulterated bliss. As she is so apt to do, the quirkiness of her heroine, Begonia, along with Begonia’s willful but well-meaning dog, a parade of characters that lend color and depth to the story, and a grumpiest of grumps hero, Hayes, conspire to steal your heart. I challenge you to pick up The Last Eligible Billionaire and not smile. I challenge you to NOT binge-read this story. If you’re a fan of the type of romance that tickles your funny bone and asks you to not take life so seriously, then you need this story. If you’re currently wrapped up in the griminess of life, this story is made for right now. Behind all of Grant’s humor choices lies the message that we need every day: that the greatest thing a person can do is love and accept another person simply for who they are. Grant weaves this truth throughout Hayes and Begonia’s journeys, even when it doesn’t seem as though they are fated, even when they fight to make choices to love the other, even when they can’t be together. That message is the ultimate reason you need this book in your life. Pippa Grant’s The Last Eligible Billionaire is fun with a full scoop of truth for its main dish.
Nellie Rivera is trading traffic for tranquility. When the quiet streets of small-town Montana beckon, she leaves Denver behind and moves to Calamity. It would be the perfect adventure if not for Cal Stark.
When her archnemesis dares to show his face one Saturday morning, declaring he is moving there too, she vows to make his life a misery. The town isn’t big enough for the both of them and besides . . .
She was here first.
Cal has been a thorn in her side since high school. He might have bullied her back then, but she’s not a modest teenager anymore and has learned a few plays of her own. If all goes to plan, she’ll run the former pro quarterback out of town within a month.
There’s only one problem. Cal has the same plan. He wants Calamity bad enough to pull out all the stops. And after one kiss, she realizes that he doesn’t play fair.
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Willa Nash is USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author Devney Perry’s alter ego, writing contemporary romance stories for Kindle Unlimited. Lover of Swedish Fish, hater of laundry, she lives in Washington State with her husband and two sons. She was born and raised in Montana and has a passion for writing books in the state she calls home.
I knew from Pierce and Kerrigan’s book, The Brazen, that I would like Cal and Nellie’s book, Willa Nash’s newest book, The Bully. What I didn’t realize, what took me by surprise, was how much I love Nash’s characterization of Cal. There is nothing more romance catnip than a seemingly mean-spirited hero with depths of trauma to hide a big heart. That misunderstood hero trope? It’s a sure thing, as far as I’m concerned. And Cal has now wrestled the top spot away from Reese Huxley as my favorite hero in Willa Nash’s Calamity Montana series.
The Bully is pure unadulterated enemies-to-lovers. It’s interesting because you could call this a slow-burn in terms of the progression of Cal and Nellie’s adoration. Nash wastes very little time in getting them into bed. When she does, these two are the grand finale of your favorite fireworks show. It would be simple to place our focus there, but the true beauty of The Bully is the evolution of Nellie’s and Cal’s understandings of each other. That is the slow-burn of this story. When the culmination of it hits in this book, it manifests an emotional response. I found myself tearful over Cal’s representation of Nellie to him. I went into this book thinking I would enjoy another great Willa Nash story. I didn’t realize I would hate to leave it because the emotional leverage of it grasped at me.
Even more, this is the first Willa Nash/Devney Perry story in a long time that didn’t feel like the ending was rushed after she carefully crafts the first three-quarters of her book. Cal and Nellie’s trajectory is plotted to perfection, as far as I’m concerned.
Gah, I love these two. Willa Nash makes you love Nellie and Cal’s hate-to-love story. If you do anything, you’ll download The Bully.
The Last Eligible Billionaire by Pippa Grant is now live!
Emotionally unavailable doesn’t even begin to describe my new fake boyfriend. He’s cold. He’s distant. He has more defenses than a nuclear missile silo. And he’s the ultimate catch of the century. At least, according to his bank statement.
My job’s simple: Keep Hayes Rutherford’s matchmaking relatives and all interested ladies away from the cranky, grumpy, walled-off heir to my favorite movie empire, and in return, he won’t ruin my life over a teensy, tiny little misunderstanding.
But the more I sneak past Hayes’s walls and fences, the more I realize that while we might be from different worlds, we have more in common than either of us expected. The man under all the glitz, glamour, and dollar signs could be the real love of my life.
But you know what they say about fake dating a billionaire—it’s all fun and games until the scandals start.
The Last Eligible Billionaire is a swoony, laugh-out-loud romance featuring a botched wax job, a woman in over her head, a man in over his heart, and the sweetest misguided dog to ever play matchmaker…or at least make sure these two anti-love birds never have clothes when they get out of the shower.
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Pippa Grant is a USA Today Bestselling author who writes romantic comedies that will make tears run down your leg. When she’s not reading, writing or sleeping, she’s being crowned employee of the month as a stay-at-home mom and housewife trying to prepare her adorable demon spawn to be productive members of society, all the while fantasizing about long walks on the beach with hot chocolate chip cookies.
A.L. Jackson has revealed the cover for Say It’s Forever!
Releasing: March 28, 2022
From NYT and USA Today bestselling author A.L. Jackson comes a close proximity, single-parent stand-alone romance about a woman on the run and the man who will do anything to save her…
Jud Lawson found me stranded in the rain.
Broken down on the side of the road in a deserted neighborhood with my piece of crap car.
I wasn’t looking for a hero, and definitely not one who looks like him.
An obscenely hot, mountain-of-a-man who screams danger.
But I have little choice other than climbing onto the back of his bike.
One look at Salem Aguilar, and I’m hooked.
The girl is devastation wrapped in a black, seductive bow.
A knockout.
A dream.
Turns out, she needs a job, and I need the help.
Now I have a vixen strutting around my shop, and I’m the fool who’s itching to reach out and take what he can’t have.
But neither of us can ignore the burning attraction.
The fire that leads to a kiss.
A kiss that has us falling into my bed.
The connection that has me wanting the one thing I’d never thought I could have again.
Because monsters like me don’t deserve love.
Only Salem has a secret, too.
She’s been running for years, and her past just caught up to us…
A.L. Jackson is the New York Times & USA Today Bestselling author of contemporary romance. She writes emotional, sexy, heart-filled stories about boys who usually like to be a little bit bad.
If she’s not writing, you can find her hanging out by the pool with her family, sipping cocktails with her friends, or of course with her nose buried in a book.
Penelope Ward’s The Assignment is an apt reminder that the enemies-to-lovers trope reigns supreme in the world of romance. Her newest story follows Aspyn and Troy. Troy dated Aspyn’s best friend in high school, and he cheats on her. This triggers Aspyn, and she spends the rest of their time in high school meteing out justice on him. The story begins when Aspyn is tasked with chaperoning one of the residents of the retired living home where she works. The man’s grandson fails to follow the rules; therefore, the administration determines they require a chaperone on their outings. It turns out that the grandson is none other than Troy, Aspyn’s high school nemesis. From the start, these two argue, bickering back and forth over their disdain for each other. However, this is simply foreplay. As the story progresses, Aspyn and Troy recognize developing feelings for each other. Unfortunately, Troy’s time in their hometown is temporary. Is their connection transitory, or will they find a forever together?
The chemistry between Aspyn and Troy is clear from the beginning of The Assignment. Ward has crafted it so clearly that, as a reader, when they finally move past it into deeper feelings, you actually miss it. These two are clearly fated for each other, but there are complications at the outset. What this does for the story arc is highlight the vulnerability of love. Aspyn’s familial background underscores her disdain for cheating which causes her to fight falling for Troy. She struggles to become vulnerable with him, and she self-sabotages their relationship. Similarly, Troy believes he isn’t worthy of love, so he too wrestles with becoming too vulnerable with Aspyn. Over and over again, these two miss out on connecting out of fear. This creates the emotional depth of Ward’s story.
I do feel that there are times when Ward fails to create deeper connections between the characters. For example, Troy adores Kiki, Aspyn’s niece who she is raising, but their relationship felt transitory at times. I was hoping for a more visceral emotional connection between them. There are times, even, when I thought Aspyn and Troy’s relationship lacked a stronger emotional bond. There is clearly chemistry, but I’m not sure that The Assignment made me feel the depth of their love.
The Assignment highlights some of the best elements of the enemies-to-lovers trope: clear fire between the hero and heroine, a slow devolvement into undying feelings, and the evolution into forever. As she has done previously in her other books, Penelope Ward shows us that she’s a master storyteller in this newest story.
The Difference Between Somehow and Someway, the jaw-dropping, sexy and intense second book in The Difference Trilogy from USA Today bestselling author Aly Martinez is now live!
After surviving a plane crash, I was lucky to be alive. It was a harsh truth, but one that changed my perspective on how fragile life could be.
So when a fellow survivor caught my eye, I owed it to myself to take a chance and follow my heart.
Bowen Michaels was guarded and broody, but I saw through his well-formed armor. Much like me, he was broken and lost, but together we found our way through the darkness.
For a brief moment, wrapped in his arms, it felt like maybe he was right about fate and we’d been destined to find each other all along.
But when buried secrets of the past erupt, igniting us both, it was hard to believe we’d been fated for anything other than failure.
The world gave me everything. And then it took it all away.
Excerpt from The Difference between Somebody and Someone Book 1
“Sorry, is my mood killing your buzz?” I asked. Her blue eyes sparkled in the glow of the airplane reading light. “It really is.” I shook my head and went back to mindlessly flipping the pages of a magazine I’d bought at the terminal back in Colorado. I’d picked it up with hopes it would be a distraction from the cyclone raging within me on our way back to Atlanta. The minute she ordered that drink, I’d known it was a lost cause. Her hand came across the armrest and landed on my thigh. “Bowen, stop. It’s not a big deal.” It was the truth. Compared to everything we’d been through, our house could have been swallowed by a sinkhole and it wouldn’t have been considered a big deal. Honest to God, I was lucky to still have her at all. It had only been nine months since we’d met, but we’d lived a thousand lives in that time. Unfortunately, that also meant we’d died almost as many deaths. Terrifying, tortuous, agony-filled deaths. We’d also found love though—immeasurable amounts of it. I stared down at her engagement ring. I’d cashed out a huge chunk of my savings account and still had to open a line of credit with the jewelry store to buy the three-karat princess-cut ring. The payment was roughly the same as I paid for my truck each month, but the tears in her eyes as she’d sat in her hospital bed, clutching it to her chest the day I proposed, made it all worth it. She was worth it. Every day, every tear, every worry-filled minute shaved off my life. I’d do it all again. If only I weren’t so helpless to save her. I loved that woman. Whole heart. Whole soul. Bend me, break me, crack me open and she would have been there. No matter how bad it got, she was always a part of me. I wasn’t sure anymore if she could say the same. “Bowen,” she whispered, just as she’d done so many times before. It was a plea. One she knew I’d answer no matter the situation. No matter how mad I got. No matter how much I feared losing her again. My gaze instinctively lifted to hers. She smiled and the sight caused an ache in my chest. It was a lie. God, I missed her smile. “Baby, I’m okay.” She tilted her head to her drink. “I hate flying. That’s all this is.” That was a lie too. My shoulders fell and a loud breath tore from my burning lungs, but I let myself pretend, my mind going back to a time when it could have been the truth. I thought of the nights we’d shared multiple bottles of wine and made love, laughing and moaning under the covers until the sun crept across the horizon. She’d rested peacefully in my arms. No nightmares. No crying in her sleep. No insomnia. Just even breaths, her head on my shoulder, and her body wound around mine so tightly it was like a second skin. But that was the past. The unreachable, insurmountable past. The plane jerked, forcing me back to the present. “Shit.” She moved her hand off my thigh to grasp her drink as it sloshed all over her. “Crap, crap, crap,” she chanted, using a cocktail napkin to dry the dark-red pool of tomato juice on her white pants. For a moment, I sat there and watched her struggle. It wasn’t the most chivalrous thing to do, but I was all out of grand gestures. She unbuckled her seat belt and lurched to her feet, her phone along with a handful of ice cubes from her lap falling to the floor. “Damn, this is going to leave a huge stain.” The plane jerked again and she stumbled forward, crashing into the seat in front of her before I could catch her arm. “Dammit, sit down before you get hurt.” Ignoring me, she bent over to fish her phone from under the seat. “Hit the button for the flight attendant. I need some club soda and a lemon. STAT.” “No, what you need is to sit down.” I gave her arm a tug and dragged her down to the seat. Using the tip of my boot, I swept her phone toward her. Aforementioned lack of chivalry aside, I was no contortionist; leaning over to pick it up was out of the question. She folded her upper body over my lap and blindly patted around the floor. I fought the urge to run my fingers through the back of her hair. In the beginning, it would have been a no-brainer. I’d have curled forward and suggestively whispered in her ear, “Since you’re already down there…” She would have grinned up at me, her whole face filled with mischief as she traced a finger over my zipper, ignoring anyone who dared to watch her as she replied, “You mean down here?” I’d have grabbed her hand and made her stop even though I was the one who had started it. She had no filter. She always took it one step too far. I’d loved that about her when we’d first met. It was fresh and exciting, a far cry from the stuffy women I’d dated in the past. But now, she was in the past too. We were in the past.
About Aly Originally from Savannah, Georgia, USA Today bestselling author Aly Martinez now lives in South Carolina with her four hilarious children. Never one to take herself too seriously, she enjoys movies that can surprise her with a twist, charcuterie boards, and her mildly neurotic golden retriever. It should be known, however, that she hates pizza and ice cream, almost as much as writing her bio in the third person. She passes what little free time she has reading anything and everything she can get her hands on, preferably with a glass of wine by her side.
Kandi Steiner has revealed the cover for Fair Catch!
Releasing: March 16, 2022
Photography: Lauren Perry of Perrywinkle Photography
As if things aren’t already tough enough as the only girl on a college football team, Coach had to go and assign Zeke Collins as my roommate.
A cocky kick returner and my brother’s best friend who should have been ripped of that title years ago, he’s as infuriating as he is undeniably sexy.
I hate him, and for good reason — reason I won’t ever let him forget.
He thinks because we grew up together that it’s his role to protect me, but all he does is get in my way, make me look weak, and piss me off more.
I tell him I can handle myself, and I’m hell-bent on getting that point across to him and the rest of the nation watching the only girl in collegiate football.
The pressure doesn’t get to me. The scrutiny? I’m ready for.
But sharing very thin walls with Zeke Collins? I wasn’t prepared for that.
And the more we’re forced together, the harder it is to distinguish that pencil-thin line between hating him… and wanting him.
Kandi Steiner is an Amazon Top 5 bestselling author and whiskey connoisseur living in Tampa, FL. Best known for writing “emotional rollercoaster” stories, she loves bringing flawed characters to life and writing about real, raw romance — in all its forms. No two Kandi Steiner books are the same, and if you’re a lover of angsty, emotional, and inspirational reads, she’s your gal.
An alumna of the University of Central Florida, Kandi graduated with a double major in Creative Writing and Advertising/PR with a minor in Women’s Studies. She started writing back in the 4th grade after reading the first Harry Potter installment. In 6th grade, she wrote and edited her own newspaper and distributed to her classmates. Eventually, the principal caught on and the newspaper was quickly halted, though Kandi tried fighting for her “freedom of press.”
She took particular interest in writing romance after college, as she has always been a die hard hopeless romantic, and likes to highlight all the challenges of love as well as the triumphs.
When Kandi isn’t writing, you can find her reading books of all kinds, planning her next adventure, or pole dancing (yes, you read that right). She enjoys live music, traveling, playing with her fur babies and soaking up the sweetness of life.
Kandi Steiner may be coming to a city near you! Check out her “events” tab to see all the signings she’s attending in the near future:
Please note. I’m used to writing longer reviews. However, this review for Aly Martinez’s second book in her The Difference Trilogy will be brief. The reason? These books hold secrets, and I refuse to give anything away intentionally or unintentionally. So what should you know about The Difference Between Somehow and Someway? It is engaging, enticing, enigmatic, and electric. It confounds you and forces you forward even when you are trepidatious about it. I’ll be honest. From the start of this book, I was anxious. Why? Because I absolutely ADORE Bowen and Remi together. ADORE THEM! These two are fated, and Martinez uses the space of her story to challenge ideas about fate. They love each other to depths that make butterflies bloom in your stomach, and I kept worrying about their ability to stay fated. Again, this trilogy is a reminder of Aly Martinez’s genius at writing romantic suspense. I love how she loves to keep her readers in the dark, and I admire her capacity to do it so easily. In a world where romance can be so predictable, I’ve yet to read a book where Martinez hasn’t snowed me. In fact, I end her books in awe of her creativity and craftsmanship. And The Difference between Somehow and Someway? It is no different. Now, the hardest part? Waiting for the final book of this trilogy, The Difference Between Someday and Forever. Seriously…run and grab this book and its predecessor, The Difference Between Somebody and Someone. These will be the best stories you read this month.
As she has done time and time again, K.K. Allen has beautifully and carefully wrought a story that pulls deep from your soul. Spinning off from her book, Over the Moon, Weight of Regret situates us in the camp immortalized in that former story. In this book, its hero, Anderson Bexley has renamed Camp Dakota to Camp Bexley and worked to remake it in the image of his and his brothers’ youthful dreams for their family’s camp. His heroine, Hope, is madly in love with him, but he fails to accept it, sending her away from the camp for a better life. Broken-hearted and spurned, Hope leaves for Seattle, intent on remaking her life in the big city. A year later, Anderson is ready to relaunch Camp Bexley, but he needs help in doing this. He asks his sister, Silver, for help, and she arranges for a PR firm to handle the re-opening. When a car arrives for his meeting with the PR company, out walks Hope. In their year apart, Anderson has pined for Hope, spending a year regretting his decision to reject her. When he sees her again, it’s a second chance to love her. However, the Hope that exits her car is not the same woman. Unlike Anderson, she has spent a year trying to forget Anderson’s rejection and make herself into a less emotionally available woman. Weight of Regret follows Anderson and Hope as they rekindle their love for each other and fight to keep it alive.
As she does so deftly in her stories, Allen shows her capacity for writing stories that burrow deep into your heart. Anderson and Hope’s story of second chances isn’t new, but Allen makes it feel fresh. Her heartrending prose is the catalyst for the emotional connection of her reader to the page. Add to that two characters who have lost and lived with regret (hence the connection to the title) that it feels imperative for them to find their happy ending. Yet, Allen makes them work for it, creating electric chemistry between Anderson and Hope that portends good things. Unfortunately, she requires an almost uncomfortable patience from her readers as they find their way. Her timing is impeccable, however, in this story. She asks her readers to work for it, simply to allow Anderson and Hope’s undying love to blossom to its depths.
Beyond Hope and Anderson’s beautiful coupling is a promise. Weight of Regret foreshadows future stories, keeping us at Camp Bexley for an indeterminate period of time. You see, Anderson and Hope’s initial miss on a relationship isn’t the only regret of this book. Anderson’s relationships with his brothers are fodder for K.K. Allen’s imaginative fire. And this is the true promise of this newest offering from K.K. Allen.
Professor Romance 