#book-blogger – Professor Romance

Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Tropes: romantic suspense; insta-attraction; professor/student; forbidden relationship; band of brothers; found family

Tia Louise’s Forbidden, the final book of her Hamilton Heat series, brings a complete and compelling end to the saga covering its four books. Wrapped in that favorite forbidden professor/student trope, Louise does what she does best: infuses an interesting, albeit predictable story into the steam of her characters, Dirk (Hutch from book 1’s little brother) and Reanna (his student with a secret). What readers love about Tia Louise’s storytelling is her capacity to draw up eroticism into her stories that provide titillating entertainment. Dirk and Reanna are instantly attracted to each other, and Dirk’s fight to stay away from Reanna is absolutely futile. Here’s the thing…if you love $ex with a side of story, this book and its predecessors are your reads. I have to admit, though. I found the predominance of Reanna and Dirk “hitting it” distracting. Don’t get me wrong. I love Tia Louise. Her Fight for Love series still echoes in my mind. But I’ve struggled with the Hamilton Heat series because it seems it is intended to infuse as much eroticism into its books, forgoing, at times, character development. This has been difficult for this reader because decisive and intentional character development is important. Louise can plot a story well, and she can draw on eroticism to increase the chemistry of her characters, but I needed more from Forbidden to believe that Dirk and Reanna wanted more than $ex. And believability is necessary for a forbidden, age-gap romance.

Tia Louise’s Forbidden provides a lovely ending to the threaded plotline of this series’s books. It entertains you while steaming your glasses…and other things. What it won’t do is tell you the “why” behind her characters’ choices. It will, however, underscore one of my favorite tropes: the found family. These qualities conspire to create a story that will entice but might not sustain your attention if you are looking for a bit more emotional development between its characters.

In love and romance,

Professor A

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Top Reads of 2022 ✍🏻

January 5, 2023 professorromance

🎉 𝗧𝗢𝗣 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗𝗦 𝗢𝗙 2022 🎉

I know it’s already the 5th of January, but I had end-of-semester grading to complete before offering up my top reads of 2022. Trust me when I say, there were a lot of GREAT choices for this honor, and it obviously excludes a whole bunch of authors I have yet to read, but these are the books that captured my heart completely this year.

𝗧𝗼𝗽 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘀 📚

𝘉𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘐 𝘓𝘦𝘵 𝘎𝘰 by Kennedy Ryan

𝘍𝘰𝘭𝘬 𝘈𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘖𝘶𝘵 by Penny Reid (Honorable Mention for Ten Trends to Seduce Your Bestfriend)

𝘘𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘚𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘬 by Kandi Steiner

𝘋𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘋𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘯 by B.B. Easton

𝘗𝘪𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘈 𝘓𝘪𝘧𝘦 (and its sister, 𝘔𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘈 𝘓𝘪𝘧𝘦) by Jewel E. Ann

𝘔𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩 by Kristen Ashley (Honorable Mention for 𝘚𝘮𝘰𝘬𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘭)

𝘗𝘦𝘯 𝘗𝘢𝘭 by JT Geissinger (This one scrambled my brain!)

𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘞𝘦 𝘕𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘎𝘰𝘵 𝘖𝘷𝘦𝘳 by Lucy Score

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘉𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 by Aly Martinez

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴 by Ashley Jade

Thank you to all the authors I read in 2022! Your books provided some important respite from the “real world.”

Here’s to many GREAT reads in 2023!

#bookblogger #topreadsof2022 #booklove #booknerd #bookstagrammar

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✍🏻 B.B. Easton’s delectable Devil of Dublin is LIVE. Get ready for this one! ✍🏻

September 22, 2022September 21, 2022 professorromance

Devil of Dublin by BB Easton is now live!

From the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of 44 Chapters About 4 Men (inspiration for the Netflix Original series Sex/Life) comes a dark mafia romance steeped in Irish folklore.

I can’t remember anymore if my grandfather’s eyes were blue or green, but I’ll never forget the way they wrinkled at the corners when he laughed at one of his own jokes. Or the way they sparkled with mischief when he told me tales about the magical creatures that dwelled in the forest behind his humble Irish sheep farm–shy fairies who liked to eat tea biscuits, cruel witches who liked to eat children, a moody lake spirit with a taste for expensive gifts.

As a child, I believed every fantastical word. But when he warned me about the mute boy who also lurked in those woods, the one the priest had declared to be the spawn of Satan himself, I refused to listen. Kellen wasn’t evil. He was kind, and beautiful, and special, and hurting. He was my friend. And with every summer I spent stolen away with him in those enchanted woods, he grew to become so much more.

But when I return to Glenshire as an adult, grieving and engaged to someone else, all those legends quickly morph into nightmares.

My grandfather had been right about everything, especially the boy.

If only I had listened.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Devil of Dublin is intended for mature audiences who enjoy extremely dark subject matter, high emotional intensity, explicit adult content, graphic violence, heart-pounding suspense, fairy-tale worthy love, and gorgeous Irish scenery. If that sounds like you, then welcome to Glenshire! If you’re unsure, please review the comprehensive content warning on my website before reading.

Download today or read FREE in Kindle Unlimited!

https://mybook.to/devilofdublin

Special edition hardbacks and paperbacks are also available with an alternate cover designed by Emily Wittig and eight full-page, B&W photos of the gorgeous Irish locations mentioned in the book!

Also available in audio!

Narrated by: Elizabeth Klett and Eric Nolan

(an Irish actor seen on Game of Thrones, Vikings, Vikings Valhalla, & The Witcher)

Meet BB Easton

Wall Street Journal bestselling author BB Easton lives in the suburbs of Atlanta with her long-suffering husband, Ken, and two adorable children. A few years ago, she quit her job as a school psychologist to write books about her punk rock past and deviant sexual history full-time. Ken wasn’t super excited about that, but now that he’s appeared in three of her books and inspired a TV show character, he’s incredibly supportive.

BB’s debut memoir, 44 Chapters About 4 Men, went on to inspire the Netflix original series, Sex/Life, which was viewed by 67 million households worldwide within the first month making it the 3^rd most-watched Netflix original series of all time. Because she had so much fun writing 44 Chapters, BB went on to publish four more wickedly funny, shockingly steamy, and heartwarmingly autobiographical books, one for each man in her memoir—Skin, Speed, Star, and Suit.

The Rain Trilogy—a dark, immersive, end-of-the-world romance—was BB’s first work of fiction. Or at least, that’s what she thought when she wrote it in 2019. Then, 2020 hit, and all of her dystopian plot points started coming true. Hoping to fix everything, BB returned with a fun, feel-good romantic comedy called Group Therapy, but alas, the world is still on fire … and so is BB’s desire to write intense, us-against-the-world romances. Her next release, Devil of Dublin, is a dark Irish mafia romance steeped in folklore and family secrets.

You can find BB procrastinating in all of the following places:

Website: www.authorbbeaston.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/author.bb.easton

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bbeaston

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bbeaston

#TeamBB Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/BBEaston

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bb_easton

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/artbyeaston

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/bbeaston

Goodreads: https://goo.gl/4hiwiR

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/bb-easton

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✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4.5 ⭐️ Review: Emma Scott’s Between Hello & Goodbye ✍🏻

June 29, 2022June 29, 2022 professorromance

Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

“We’re stuck, aren’t we? Trapped somewhere between hello and goodbye.”

I want to say something profound about Emma Scott’s Between Hello & Goodbye. I want to find all the words to tell people about the gravity of emotion in this story about instant attraction, but words seem inadequate to elaborate on the beauty of this story. Set in Hawaii and Seattle, Scott has created a story about choices and control and life.

Faith is a woman without direction. She is wildly successful at her job in advertising, but her life is an aimless journey of one-night stands and meaningless evenings out with friends. When she shows up late for an important meeting with a client, she’s forced to take a leave of absence to figure out her priorities. She goes to Hawaii to work on herself, away from men, work, and the friends who bring her down. While there, she has an accident and must be rescued. It is then that she meets Asher, one of the firefighters who rescues her. Asher and Faith are drawn to each other. While Asher would like to stay away from her, he can’t. Over the course of her time in Hawaii, they grow closer, but their time is troubled by her eventual departure. Asher has no intention of leaving Kauai to follow Faith, but he can’t let her go. Therein lies their initial issues. Is it possible for Asher and Faith to find their happy ending? If Asher isn’t able to let go of his control to protect his loved ones from pain, and if one of them isn’t willing to make choices to move and be together, it might not be possible. When tragedy strikes, though, their outlook on life changes. Will they find their happily ever after?

Between Hello & Goodbye is the type of romance that sneaks up on you. I had read the blurb for this book, so I was anticipating some angst. Every turn of the page was met with anticipation for the angst of Scott’s story. As such, I crawled through Asher and Faith’s story, ready for the happy ending because these two characters run the gamut of emotions. Both of them are stubborn and strong-willed, characterized as such to build the tension of their coupling. There is an emotional investment easily made in Asher and Faith’s journey.

Emma Scott’s Between Hello & Goodbye is a beautiful reminder about the precariousness of life and the need to live it fully. Be sure to have a box of tissues with you when you read it. You won’t regret it.

“Aloha means to hear what is not said, to see what cannot be seen, to know the unknowable.”

In love and romance,

Professor A

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✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 5 ⭐️ Review: Saffron A. Kent’s Hey, Mister Marshall ✍🏻

June 18, 2022 professorromance

Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Let it be known that, I, Professor A, do solemnly swear that Saffron A. Kent’s Hey, Mister Marshall, the final book of her St. Mary’s Rebels series, is its best story. Yep, I said it. It’s my favorite of the four. Don’t get me wrong. I ADORE the first three, but there was something missing for me in those first three stories. In this final story, that missing part was found.

Now, I was reading a review on this book by another reviewer the other day when I was supposed to have finished this story for review BUT alas, I’ve been in jury purgatory and my hours have been swept away from me for purposes of the justice system. Sitting in my jury box, my errant thoughts were focused on Alaric and Poe. So, reviewing my inbox on my breaks, a review came into my inbox for this book, and I wanted to know their thoughts. And they gave this book a “3”….A 3!!! What? Even more, they commented on Alaric wearing a pinky ring and Poe acting like a teenager as two of their reasons for assigning this book that grade. And I rolled my eyes. I know I shouldn’t judge my fellow reviewers, but it became obvious to me that readers of SAK can get lost in the surface details of her books and miss the brilliance of her storytelling.

Here’s the thing. SAK makes moves with intention in her stories, including Hey, Mister Marshall. For one, she uses symbolism and color to both market and connect you more deeply to her characters. Each of her heroines, for example, is assigned a color. That’s intentional. If you want to understand why each corresponds to a particular color, you should do some color analysis to understand it all. Yes, it’s a keen marketing strategy, but it’s more than you believe.

That pinky ring that the reader didn’t get or like. That was key to HMM because it is like a collar or an anchor to Alaric’s past, the thing that strangles his dreams and capacity to both give and receive love. It’s a symbol of a tradition that keeps him jailed in his past. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like pinky rings. That SAK has the capacity to craft this type of symbolism and metaphor in her stories is a huge ARROW to her gift as a writer.

And Poe acting like a teenager, ummm…yeah, she is one. It would have been easy for SAK to remove “teenage-esque” traits out of her St. Mary’s Rebels FMCs, but she would do herself a disservice in doing so. We need Poe to act out. It is partly because she’s a teenager, but it’s more about feeling unloved and unseen. Alaric’s want to dominate her as a response to his past with her mother is wrong. If Poe had readily accepted that without acting out, she wouldn’t be normal. She already isn’t a normal teen given her past. And we see her maturity from that past later in the story when she recognizes a kindred spirit or soulmate in Mr. Marshall. She acts appropriately for her age and life experience, so again, I rolled my eyes at the miss of this other reviewer.

Like her other stories, SAK creates broken worlds with imperfect people. They are titillating and downright dirty. And many of her readers focus on that. However, it’s the emotional gravitas of a book such as Hey, Mister Marshall that makes me pine for more stories from her. The reason that HMM is my fav of the four isn’t the age gap or the spiciness of it. It’s the message of found family for two people who have lived lives feeling unloved. Their experiences are not much different, and your heart bleeds for the wounds inflicted on them as children. That’s where I connected with Alaric and Poe. This is where the depth of storytelling draws you deeply into SAK’s newest book.

When you read a tome from Saffron A. Kent, don’t take it at face value. Granted, she spends much creative time, building the facade of her book. But to get hung up there, you’ll miss out on her magic, her dexterity in the creation of souls that both grab at your soul and make your eyeglasses steam. Hey, Mister Marshall is the perfect end to an already delectable series.

In love and romance,

Professor A

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✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4 ⭐️ Review: Corinne Michaels’s Help Me Remember, book 1 of the Rose Canyon series ✍🏻

June 18, 2022 professorromance

Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

“Selfishly, we all want things, but doing what is best for the other person is what love is.”

Corinne Michaels’s newest story, Help Me Remember, grabs you from its very first chapter. It’s everything you love about her storytelling: angsty, impeccable in its details, and engaging. Help Me Remember launches us into a new series from Michaels, the Rose Canyon series. If this book is any indication, Michaels will have another popular series under her booklist belt.

The story follows Brielle. As the book begins, Brielle awakens in a hospital bed with various injuries and a lack of her most recent memories. She also awakes to the death of her brother, Isaac. Additionally, in order to protect the efficacy of the investigation, her family and friends won’t give her details about her past. Devasted by the loss of her brother, and wanting to find answers, she enlists the help of his best friend, Spencer, to investigate her life. She has always loved him from afar, so her feelings of connection to him don’t seem out of place. As the story progresses, they find clues as to the person who killed her brother and assaulted her, but she also finds herself falling deeply for Spencer. When portions of her memory return, however, she can’t believe what she remembers and it threatens to derail her future.

I love an amnesia story within a romance story. It drives you further into the book as the protagonist gains their memories bit by bit. If written well, the pacing of the book is fluid, and that is definitely the case with Michaels’s story. Brielle’s memories are revealed at moments when you think the journeys of her hero and heroine might derail or slow. Little by little, she pulls you deeper into their story. I hated to put it down to adult because their story is compelling. Even more, the villain isn’t obvious until it’s revealed. Then, the story takes on its normal progression into the happy ending for her main characters.

Brielle is a compelling FMC. There are moments in her journey when Michaels could fall into traps, namely when Brielle struggles with memories of her former boyfriend. At first, I was worried that Michaels would lead us astray for much of the story with that storyline. Thankfully, she resolves it quickly and focuses us on the developing relationship between Brielle and the MMC. The incremental development of that allows for a building of chemistry that entices the reader and makes it believable. My only criticism is Brielle’s response to the revelation of her love interest. For me, it seemed a bit manipulative of Michaels. Any long-term reader of Corinne Michaels knows her penchant for creating angsty stories, and this feels like a move on her part to re-create the angst of the earlier stories on her booklist. And frankly, I didn’t think this story required it at the level it was crafted. Now, having read many of her former books, the angst of Help Me Remember is tame. I simply believe that the general suspense built throughout the romance could have been enough to connect emotionally with her readers. Again, my opinion, so take it for what it’s worth.

I’m excited for the Rose Canyon series books to come. The next one is teased a bit at the end of Help Me Remember, and it promises some second chance romance, a trope that Corinne Michaels creates with aplomb. If you’re a fan of romantic suspense with a side of angst, you’ll love her newest book, Help Me Remember.

In love and romance,

Professor A

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✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4.5 ⭐️ Review: Louise Bay’s Mr. Bloomsbury ✍🏻

March 9, 2022 professorromance

Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

To read Louise Bay’s The Mister Series is to be delighted in her complicated heroes. There is no one hero more complicated and mysterious than Andrew Blake in her newest offering, Mr. Bloomsbury. In fact, what does he do before noon? While we find out near the book’s end, the gruff, man of few words, Andrew, dominates the imagination of Bay’s readers. What is most refreshing about her story is its heroine, Sofia, an Italian-bred American who strong-arms her way into his assistant job. From the moment Andrew and Sofia meet, the book explodes even with a rarely speaking Andrew. At the outset of Mr. Bloomsbury, you cannot help but pine for these two to find their stride as their attraction is palpable. Interestingly, it’s difficult to ascertain what that might look like given Sofia’s unwillingness to accept any of Andrew’s chiding, and Andrew’s insistence on maintaining his status quo. As the story progresses, however, Sofia’s challenges ignite something in Andrew that allows him to show her secreted away parts of himself. This allows for them to draw closer, and we earn an Andrew who feels humanized by the end of the book. The messaging of Mr. Bloomsbury is compelling: men supporting women in their chosen fields without reducing them, the economy of speaking and the intentionality of words for their effect, the reconciliation of a parent and a child after decades of hurt and misunderstandings, and most importantly, the flexibility one has to change their personal rules when life changes.

The best parts of Mr. Bloomsbury?

**Sofia and Andrew’s igniting chemistry

**Andrew’s evolution

**Sofia’s reconciliation with her biological father

**Sofia’s intelligence offering up solutions to Andrew’s problems

**Andrew’s alter-ego and its play for Sofia

**Andrew and Sofia’s spirited bedroom activities

**Andrew and Sofia’s quick fall into forever

Where did the book fall a bit short?

The ending. Not the last chapter. That is a delight. I love when Louise Bay brings the Mister heroes and their significant others together. It’s a couple of chapters leading up to it, the way that Andrew flips a switch and falls headfirst into forever with Sofia. For me, that felt rushed in a way that the rest of the book wasn’t.

Over and over again, Louise Bay crafts heroes and heroines that simply fit together and amuse her readers. In Mr. Bloomsbury, the attraction between Sofia and Andrew is off-the-charts fun, as they learn each other in each passing chapter. I’m a fan of grumpy, sullen, heroes of few words. When you partner him with an intelligent, independent woman? The result is incendiary, and I’m here for that.

In love and romance,

Professor A

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✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 5 ⭐️ Review: Laurelin Paige’s novella, Slash ✍🏻

August 25, 2020August 20, 2020 professorromance

Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I often wonder how writers can say so much in the limited pages of a novella. Take one look at Laurelin Paige’s newest offering, Slash, and you realize it’s a master class in the form, much like the course taught within her story. Page after page, you find the heartrending, complicated story of Camila Fasbender, the sister of Edward Fasbender, Paige’s hero in her Slay series. The profession of truth that litters the pages of Slash overwhelms you in a way that feels both traumatic and essential. If I could give this novella a different title, it would be “The Persistence of Patience.” In that patience, Paige elaborates on some essential truths about life.

What I know from reading Laurelin Paige’s booklist is her ability to create these alpha men who consume their heroines. Donovan Kincaid is still my FAVORITE alpha hero in all of romancelandia. Yet, her hero in Slash is nuanced. It could be that we aren’t treated to his point of view in Slash. Quite honestly, it doesn’t feel necessary. What you learn quickly from this story is the erotic nature of patience. Hendrix Reid’s capacity for waiting is his romantic superpower. Paige has crafted him with equal amounts of empathy, persistence, and intuition. These qualities might seem to emasculate him; they don’t. Instead, they match brilliantly with her heroine who requires the capacity of these qualities.

Camila’s characterization is profound. Her being epitomizes trauma. And it feels necessary to read her story. The messages of Paige’s Slash reside in Camila’s portrayal. How do we live an abundant life after surviving it for so long? How do we become vulnerable so that we can be “seen” in our totality? How do we honor both the small and big moments of our life? How do we see our scars as more than their trauma? Over and over again, Paige’s articulation of Camila’s pain resonates and pushes against the scars of her readers, and it makes for a beautifully wrought, intentionally drawn story of healing. In her afterword, Paige explains that parts of Camila’s story didn’t need to be told in the pages of her novella, and I agree because the depth and gravity of Camila in this small space are pained enough that this shortened story form allows you, as the reader, to breathe through the difficulties of her story. Any longer, and I think it would feel like punishment, and her romance might be overpowered. Instead, the way that Hendrix loves Camila through her journey towards becoming vulnerable plays out exactly as it should. I found myself grabbed by Paige’s prose, thrown into Camila’s story, and upended by her truth. This is the art of Laurelin Paige’s Slash.

Paige says it best in her Author’s Note: “When the world feels fragile and broken and unsure, I needed to believe that fragile and broken and unsure is still beautiful.” That is the essence of Camila’s story. It is also the truth that love will see you through your pain. Paige’s Hendrix shows us how to love broken people, how to love humanity. Underscoring this axiom is the art of Paige’s writing. And one can’t help but wonder if Slash isn’t an apt representation of Paige’s own art, rife with anointed words, carefully composed characters, and a story that reminds us that we all bear some hurt and there is a fellowship in that knowledge. That it simply takes someone else “authentically see[ing]” us to be “free.”

In love and romance,

Professor A

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✍🏻 Piper Rayne’s Our Star Crossed Kiss, the next Rooftop Crew book, is coming October 13, and I have the cover for you. You can preorder this NOW. ✍🏻

August 21, 2020August 21, 2020 professorromance

Release Date: October 13

She’s got two strikes against her.

Her name is Erickson and her parents own The Bagel Place.

It wasn’t always that way. When we were nine, we were best friends. But then a feud between our dads ripped their successful business apart—and my best friend was ripped away too.

Our paths were bound to cross again. Now, both our families are vying for the same spot on a Food Channel’s reality show. Soon, the hatred between us becomes indifference and then our friendship grows like our time apart was only hours instead of years.

So when Evan asks me to pretend to be her boyfriend, I naively assume it’s to repair the rift between our families. But I wasn’t only wrong, I was dead wrong. That glimpse of a future I saw with her is ripped away again just like when we were young.

The difference is, now I’m all grown up, and I fight for what I want.

Pre-Order Your Copy Here:

Meet Piper Rayne:
Piper Rayne, or Piper and Rayne, whichever you prefer because we’re not one author, we’re two. Yep, you get two USA Today Bestselling authors for the price of one. Our goal is to bring you romance stories that have “Heartwarming Humor With a Side of Sizzle” (okay…you caught us, that’s our tagline).

A little about us…. We both have kindle’s full of one-clickable books. We’re both married to husbands who drive us to drink. We’re both chauffeurs to our kids. Most of all, we love hot heroes and quirky heroines that make us laugh, and we hope you do, too.

Connect with Piper Rayne:
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✍🏻 Blog Tour & Excerpt: Corinne Michaels’s The One for Me, book 3 from The Arrowhead Brothers series ✍🏻

August 21, 2020August 20, 2020 professorromance

An all new and endearing friends-to-lovers story…

The One for Me by New York Times bestselling author Corinne Michaels is now live!

Devney Maxwell has been my best friend since we were six years old, but she has no idea I’m in love with her.

 Even when I’m on the road playing professional baseball, she’s my home–the only one I’ve ever known. But when I return to Sugarloaf to care for the family farm, I discover she’s trying to talk herself into a life with the wrong man … and I become desperate.

It only takes a single, perfect kiss to change everything.

I have six months to get it right with Devney–to convince her to leave this town and turn that kiss into forever.

I aim to do just that as I spend my days coaching her nephew’s baseball team, fixing up the farm, and loving her with all I have. Finally, it seems like our relationship is secure and we’ll find a way to make it work.

Then tragedy strikes … changing her life forever. She’s needed here more than ever, but as for me–there’s no way I can stay.

I know she’s the one for me, but I might have to let her go …

Download today on Amazon, Books & Noble, Kobo, Apple, & Google Play!

Amazon: https://geni.us/TOFMAmazon

AppleBooks: https://geni.us/TOFMApple

Barnes & Noble: https://geni.us/TOFMNook

Kobo: https://geni.us/TOFMKobo

Google Play: https://geni.us/TOFMGP

Audible: https://geni.us/TOFMAudible

Add to Goodreads: https://geni.us/TOFMGR

Excerpt:

“Don’t play that crap with me, Sean Arrowood. I know you better. You want the wife and kids. You always have. The issue that you have is that you’re stupid.”

“Stupid?”

She nods. “Yup. S-T-U-P-I-D. And dumb.”

“They mean the same thing.”

“It required the extra punctuation at the end.”

God, I love the side of her that is smart-mouthed, fearless, and relaxed. She’s only this way with me. Or at least, that’s what I’d like to think.

The last ten years have been hard on our friendship. We both went off to college, I had baseball and she was studying. We’d see each other on breaks, but after the accident that changed the trajectory of my life, I stayed in Maine, and we rarely saw each other.

However, when I had a series in New York, Devney came. If I was in Philly, she would find a way to meet me, and I flew her down to Tampa a few times.

Now, though, I’ll be around her so much more, and I know these feelings aren’t going to go away, they’ll get stronger.

Yeah, I guess I really am stupid.

“Well, I may be stupid, but at least I’m not settling.”

She sits up, slapping her hand on the couch cushion. “Settling?”

“Yeah. You may love Oliver, but he doesn’t make you crazy.”

Devney shifts back. “You’re making me crazy right now.”

“Good.”

“You’re infuriating!”

I shrug. “You love me.”

“It helps that you’re hot.” Devney quickly covers her hand over her mouth. “I did not mean it that like that.”

I grin and lean toward her. “You think I’m hot?”

“I think you’re mediocre. God knows your harem of . . . whatever you call them . . . think you are.”

For so long I’ve fought against telling her anything about how I feel. How those women are faceless and mean nothing to me. It’s always her. Always a brunette who I seek out, hoping to find just a piece of something like her that I can cling to, but I never say it.

Then I wonder, maybe this is the perfect time. Oliver is going to propose. Oliver will marry her, and I won’t have a god damn thing to say about it because I will have never told her.

Plus, she’s drunk.

Maybe she won’t remember it.

“Maybe so, but I’m not asking them. Plus, all the girls I’m attracted to look like you.”

Devney laughs while shaking her head. “Well, it has to be tough kissing your best friend, right?”

And in that moment, I know what I’m going to do. It doesn’t matter that it’s stupid or wrong. I no longer care about her boyfriend or how this moment will undoubtedly change everything between us because she will marry him when he asks. Devney won’t falter. She’ll cling to the safe, and I am not that, but I love her.

I lean closer and her eyes study my movement. With a trembling hand, I cup her face and brush my thumb against her soft skin. Everything freezes around us as I feel the warmth emanating from her. Our breaths mingle as the distance closes. “I don’t know, but I’d like to see if it’s tough to kiss you.”

I wait, giving her one last chance to push me away, but instead, her tongue moves against her pink lips, which is all the invitation I need.

I lean in, my lips touch hers, and I know my life hasn’t just changed, it’s been completely upended.

Meet Corinne

Corinne Michaels is a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of romance novels. Her stories are chock full of emotion, humor, and unrelenting love, and she enjoys putting her characters through intense heartbreak before finding a way to heal them through their struggles.

Corinne is a former Navy wife and happily married to the man of her dreams. She began her writing career after spending months away from her husband while he was deployed–reading and writing were her escapes from the loneliness. Corinne now lives in Virginia with her husband and is the emotional, witty, sarcastic, and fun-loving mom of two beautiful children.

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