Tag: best friend’s brother

Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Melanie Harlow’s Small Town Swoon, a Cherry Tree Harbor romance ✍🏻

professorromance

Overall Grade: A-/B+

Tropes: best friend’s brother MMC; hate to love; second chance romance; he spoils her; small town romance

Small Town Swoon is one swoon worthy romance. Melanie Harlow has created a small-town romance series in her Cherry Tree Harbor series that absolutely steals your heart. In fact, until this book, the first book in the series, Runaway Love, had been my favorite by quite a landslide. Now, Dash and Ari in Small Town Swoon have solidly inched up to right below my favorite in this series. To be clear, I’ve loved the love journeys of the Buckley siblings for various reasons; however, Dash’s intentional actions spoiling Ari, the young woman he’d scorned years earlier, makes this book special.

Dash and Ari’s story feels the lightest of the first four books in this series. Harlow has lightened up this series over her Cloverleigh series, but there is still a bit of angst. The underlying thread of trauma for the Cherry Tree Harbor series is the death of the Buckley’s mom when they are young. It informs their actions, so seriousness creates the tension of the story. However, Dash and Ari’s strife doesn’t match the earlier books of this series. As such, I inhaled Harlow’s Small Town Swoon because it vacillates between the initial reticence of Ari towards Dash, their explosive chemistry, their eventual spicy agreement, and their romantic acceptance of their feelings. Page after page, I was drawn further into exploring their romance. 

Add to all of this the continued relationships between the Buckley siblings. The humor, the wisdom, and the connection are grafted together to add depth to Harlow’s book. There is so much to love about this story, and I recommend a dive into it for your Monday reading.

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release

✍🏻 Melanie Harlow’s Small Town Swoon has moved quickly to be tied with the first book of the Cherry Tree Harbor series. The way that Dash and Ari fall HARD for each other is heavenly. This is the book you need for a Monday! ✍🏻

professorromance

From USA Today bestselling author Melanie Harlow comes a best friend’s brother, steamy small town romance.

Only in the movies does the Hollywood heartthrob fall for the small town diner waitress.

So when Dashiel Buckley returns to Cherry Tree Harbor for a wedding, I’m determined not to let my massive crush on my best friend’s older brother hijack my good sense.

(It happened once before. Do not recommend.)

But when my hand is injured, it’s Dash who steps in at the diner. The moment he realizes I can’t afford to fix my car, he takes care of it. And when he hears about the way my toxic ex treated me, he refuses to let it go.

Now it’s not just his blue eyes and sexy smile that have me swooning, it’s the way he wants to help me. Encourage me. Protect me.

I can’t resist.

Our text messages heat up. Our phone calls melt all my defenses. “Just friends” turns into “just once,” and “just once” becomes a distant memory. Night after night, he warms my bed, my body, and my heart.

But it can’t last.

Our dreams have us on two different paths–Dash wants the lights, camera, action of Hollywood, and I’ll always be a small town girl.

If only I could be his.

🍒 Friends with benefits

🍒 Best friend’s brother

🍒 He spoils her

🍒 Second chance romance

🍒 Protective hero

🍒 Secret crush

🍒 Small town girl x hollywood heartthrob

𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗧𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗦𝘄𝗼𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆! 𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗘 𝗶𝗻 𝗞𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗹𝗲 𝗨𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱!

Amazon → https://harlow.pub/SmallTownSwoon-amazon
Amazon Worldwide → https://mybook.to/SmallTownSwoon
Paperback → https://harlow.pub/SmallTownSwoon-pb
Alt Male Paperback → https://harlow.pub/SmallTownSwoon-altmalepb

ABOUT MELANIE HARLOW

USA Today and #1 Amazon bestselling author Melanie Harlow writes sweet, sexy, feel-good romance. She likes her martinis dry, her heels high, and her history with the naughty bits left in. If she’s not writing or reading, she’s probably at Orangetheory or watching Schitt’s Creek again. She lifts her glass to readers from her home near Detroit, MI, where she lives with her husband, two daughters, and pet rabbit.

Connect with Melanie

Website: www.melanieharlow.com

Amazon: https://harlow.pub/amazon

Bookbub: http://harlow.pub/bb

Goodreads: http://harlow.pub/goodreads

Facebook: http://harlow.pub/ap

Facebook Group: http://harlow.pub/harlots

Instagram: http://harlow.pub/insta

TikTok: https://harlow.pub/tiktok

Newsletter: http://harlow.pub/mh-news

new release, Review

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

professorromance

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