new release

✍🏻 Two things I LOVE in contemporary romance: a grumpy, emotionally closed-off MMC and his foil, the sunshiney, independent, charming FMC who ROCKS his world. The other thing: small-town antics that add heat to the fire of the couple. You’ll find all of that deliciousness in Vi Keeland’s What Happens At the Lake. Let’s just say that I INHALED this book…and it’s LIVE early on on the ‘Zon. ✍🏻

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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
BLURB
When life took an unexpected turn, I decided to get out of New York for a while. What better place to go than the idyllic small town my father spoke about so fondly when I was growing up? Laurel Lake held the title America’s Friendliest Town for seventeen years running, and friendly was just what I needed right now.
Unfortunately, friendly wasn’t the welcome I got when I arrived.
Instead, I got Fox Cassidy. My tall, dark, and burly neighbor, who grunted at me instead of saying hello.
Okay, so I might’ve had his mailbox in my hands the first time we met. And it might’ve been a little crushed after removing it from under my tire. And I might’ve needed his help breaking into the place I was staying in after the key broke off in the lock. But still…he didn’t have to be so grumpy.
As time went on though, I started to notice things about Fox other than his glares. Like how he watched me when he thought I wasn’t looking, or how fire ignited in his eyes whenever we bickered. Though I was in Laurel Lake to escape my problems, not create new ones. And getting involved with a man like Fox screamed trouble, even if he was gorgeous and unlike any man I’d ever met.
But alas, problem seemed to be my middle name this year. So why not have some fun while I was here for the summer? It seemed like a good plan. At least until it was time to go home…
They say what happens at the lake, stays at the lake. But it’s not so easy to walk away when what stays behind…is your heart.
PURCHASE LINKS
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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new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Max Monroe’s Cluelessly Yours ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: B

Tropes: single mom FMC; love triangle-ish; he falls first; friends to lovers; doctor MMC; interconnected series of standalones

There are two things about Max Monroe’s Cluelessly Yours that I didn’t realize I needed: a swoon and a nice guy MMC. I think I’ve been sitting with grumpy next-door neighbor MMCs or anti-heroes recently, so a character such as Noah reads like a breath of fresh air in a swamp of cranky male characters. He broke up the doldrums of my reading week, and I love Max Monroe’s thoughtfulness with that. Now, let me get down to my stream-of-consciousness review of this book:

  1. I’ve decided that I approve of a dual POV when the points of view are separated into parts. While I recognize the almost “melody” created with the back and forth of chapters for dual POV, there is also a formula to it that has become a bit staid in my romance reading. I appreciate Max Monroe’s choice to break the POVs into parts. It 1) builds anticipation, 2) makes the narrative journey more tension-filled, ramping up the story, and 3) allows them to hold off on the full reveal of Sammy’s true MMC until almost halfway through it. Again, this builds a narrative tension that drives the reader forward. Smart choice!
  2. Cluelessly Yours is my favorite story thus far in Max Monroe’s It’s A Funny Story series. It may have something to do with my age and life experience that I connect in some ways to Sammy, but I appreciate her journey more than her sister’s and son’s teacher. That being said, this series has such a different flavor from Max Monroe’s earlier stories, the billionaires that steal our hearts. One of the reviews commented on their popular culture references and how she/he/they don’t like it. Honestly, I paid attention to see if Max Monroe’s millennial poked through. And it’s only a little. Instead, Cluelessly Yours reminds us to ask for and receive the best for ourselves. We shouldn’t settle, and we shouldn’t allow others to bully us into relationships. Noah and Sammy together are pure rom-com poetry.
  3. There is a story point near the end that adds a twist to the book. This is my biggest criticism of the book: it made no sense. It was put there to “fix” a story point, but it was underdeveloped in the story, so it felt like Max Monroe “jumped the shark” by enacting it. This is the sole reason for the 4-star/B rating of this book. I’m hoping there is another book for one of the characters in the story who needs a happy ending right now, but I’ll wait and see how Max Monroe’s muse(s) speak to them. 
  4. Precious children in a romance? I love them. If you don’t, well…ignore them. They add flavor to Noah and Sammy’s romance.
  5. Again, Noah…thank you for being the sweetest, most chivalrous Max Monroe MMC.

I write this next sentence about Max Monroe’s stories quite often, but it continues to ring true: Max Monroe’s Cluelessly Yours is the read you want for this weekend to escape the seriousness of your world. It’s sweet and spicy and funny and charming, and it’s not really a love triangle (thank God!), but there’s enough tension around two men pursuing Sammy that you might be annoyed with Max Monroe; it’ll be transitory when you realize the true stars of the book.

In love and romance,

Professor A

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!!! ✍🏻

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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:

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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