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✍🏻 Blog Tour & Excerpt Reveal: Erin Nicholas’s Making Whoopie ✍🏻

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If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen…

Making Whoopie, an all-new not-to-be-missed marriage of convenience romantic comedy from New York Times bestselling author Erin Nicholas, is available now!

Read my review HERE.

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This marriage of convenience is about to get sticky.
Getting hitched for the health insurance is not Jocelyn Asher’s idea of romance.

But the hospital quote has really frosted her cookies, and suddenly, “I’m rich. We should just get married,” sounds a whole lot more swoony.

Especially when the man proposing is this gorgeous. And takes her to parties featuring champagne and petit fours. She’s a sucker for anything with bubbles or icing. And just like that she finds herself married to a near stranger.

Grant Lorre is usually allergic to spontaneity.

So why did he ask the beautiful small-town baker he had a one-night stand with to marry him? Somehow watching her lick batter off a whisk–not a euphemism–made a wedding and a little fraud seem like a sweet idea.

They’ll just play house and make some whoopie–pies, of course–for a few months and then move on with their separate lives. Until then, bring on the cream filling. And that is a euphemism.

But as things heat up even outside of the kitchen, they quickly realize there’s no recipe to follow when it comes to love.

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Download your copy today!

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3cK6Ova

Apple Books: https://apple.co/3h9K7nt

Amazon Worldwide: http://mybook.to/makingwhoopie

Kobo: https://bit.ly/3cJ0iEZ

Add MAKING WHOOPIE to Goodreads: https://bit.ly/2MEFxj8

Excerpt

No one fell in love over cheesy potatoes.

That was ridiculous. There was nothing sexy about cheesy potatoes. Or potatoes without cheese, for that matter.

But lust? Well, that was a possibility. Apparently.

Because watching Grant Lorre eat cheesy potatoes across her best friend’s mother’s dining room table was making Jocelyn Asher hot.

Of course, Maggie McCaffery’s cheesy potatoes were award-winning. Seriously. She’d taken home the purple ribbon four times from the Dubuque County Fair and twice from the Iowa State Fair. And Grant seemed to agree that they were delicious. He’d made a sexy groaning sound when he’d first taken a bite, and Josie had been mesmerized as his lips closed around the tines of his fork. Never mind how her heart rate had picked up when he’d turned the fork and licked it.

She was a mess. Purple ribbon or not, Josie was pretty sure that getting worked up over watching a man eat potatoes meant she was hard up.

She took a long drink of iced tea and tried to remember the last time she’d had sex. If she wasn’t forgetting anyone—and how sad would that be—the last time had been with Ben Davis. After Kara Davis’s, now Tibbin’s, wedding.

Last week Kara had been into Buttered Up, the bakery where Josie worked with her best friend Zoe, to order a miniature version of her wedding cake to celebrate their first anniversary.

Josie sighed. That had to explain the sexy potato thing going on across the table. It had to.

But then Grant laughed at something Aiden, his best friend and Zoe’s fiancé—yes, it was one big happy group at this table—said, and Josie felt her neglected lady parts clench. Yeah, it wasn’t the potatoes.

Thankfully.

Kind of.

As weird as getting turned on by potatoes might be, it might have been preferable to being turned on by the man who had been coming into the bakery nearly every morning for the past two weeks, but hadn’t so much as asked her to have a cup of coffee with him.

He’d asked her if the blueberries in the muffins were locally sourced. He’d asked her if they had any gluten-free cinnamon scones. He’d asked her for a lemon slice for his cup of hot water. But that was pretty much the extent of the things he’d asked her over the course of the time they’d known each other.

Oh, and he’d caught her when she’d fallen off a ladder. Twice. Very gallantly.

He’d swept her up before she’d hit the floor. Like a freaking knight in shining armor.

But both times he’d simply set her on her feet and gone on with his day.

She, on the other hand, was now getting hot and bothered by side dishes.

ErinNicholas-2About Erin Nicholas

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Erin Nicholas has been writing romances almost as long as she’s been reading them. To date, she’s written over thirty sexy, contemporary novels that have been described as “toe-curling,” “enchanting,” “steamy,” and “fun.” She adores reluctant heroes, imperfect heroines, and happily ever afters.

Erin lives in the Midwest, where she enjoys spending time with her husband (who only wants to read the sex scenes in her books), her kids (who will never read the sex scenes in her books), and her family and friends (who claim to be “shocked” by the sex scenes in her books).

Connect with Erin

Facebook: http://bit.ly/2R88arL

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✍🏻 Ready for Tina Saxon’s Wild Distortion? Check out the cover, and preorder it NOW! ✍🏻

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Tina Saxon has revealed the cover for Wild Distortion,

a hot, angsty and suspenseful romance!

Releasing August 4, 2020

In paradise, nothing is as it seems.

Ryker
Coach gave me three rules. Train. Stay focused. Stay away from women. After being suspended from three NFL games, I was exiled to a remote island to stay out of the press.

One sight of the island beauty and I knew I was doomed to fail.

She’s the girl from the island.
Her eyes the color of whiskey and her lips, the taste of sugar. She’s all of my addictions rolled up in one hot body. What’s wrong with having a little tryst while on a mini-vacation?

Except addictions are hard to quit.

Aspen
He made me fall in love with him and then left me broken-hearted. My prison was his fantasy. But he wanted to see me again. He offered me something I couldn’t resist. A chance to leave the island.

I should have never gone to New York City. I was a stranger in his world, but secrets about a past I never knew lurked in the shadows threatening to unravel my life. I thought I left the mysteries of the island at home. I didn’t know I was one of them.

I’m the girl from the island.
And I was found dead twenty-four years ago.

Cover Designer: Hang Le
Photographer: Wander Aguiar
Models: Wayne Skivington & Ivenize

Pre-order your copy today!

Amazon: https://smarturl.it/wilddistortion

Nook: https://bit.ly/WilddistortionBN

Kobo: https://bit.ly/KoboWD

Apple Books: https://smarturl.it/WilddistortionAP

Add to Goodreads: https://bit.ly/WDtbr

Meet Tina


Tina Saxon lives in Dallas, Texas, with her husband and two kids. She’s not afraid to try new things because it’s outside the box of typical housewife. CEO of her home is by far the most rewarding job she has ever had. Her jobs include, but are not limited to, seamstress, carpenter, craft extraordinaire, PTA President, chauffeur, dance mom, mediator–of mentioned kids–and author. Once upon a time she was a Financial Analyst but traded budgets and forecasts in for diapers and bottles. The former was definitely easier but the latter more fulfilling.

Tina’s love for reading surged into her passion for writing. Wanting to bring the reader an intriguing story that’s hard to put down with steamy love scenes that heat you up, she’s always thinking of the perfect way to take you down that path.

Connect with Tina

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✍🏻 The wait is over! Dylan Allen’s The Jezebel is coming July 20th, and I have the GORGEOUS cover for it. Add it to your TBR today! ✍🏻

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His love was a secret her heart couldn’t keep.

The Jezebel, a tale of forbidden love and second chances by USA Today Bestselling Author, Dylan Allen coming July 20th, and we have the incredible cover!

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Stone Rivers is a sin I can’t commit.

After years of playing the trophy, puppet, perfectionist,

I’ve forgotten who I am.

Until the boy from my past walks back into my life.

Handsome as sin, charming beyond belief—Stone Rivers is temptation personified.

Our combustible chemistry shatters my resolve.

His blistering kisses remind me of everything I used to want.

But, our present is just as messy as our past,

And reckless as it may be, I can’t let him go.

My name is Regan Wilde.

I’m a mother, a sister, a daughter.

But Stone and I?

We’re a scandal in the making.

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Add The Jezebel to Goodreads: https://bit.ly/2Vu59Vd

Cover Designer: Uplifting Author Services

Photo: Staci Hart

Dylan Allen

About Dylan Allen

Dylan Allen is a Texas girl with a serious case of wanderlust.

A self-proclaimed happily ever junkie, she loves creating stories where her characters chase their own happy endings. When she isn’t writing or reading, eating or cooking, she and her family are planning their next adventure.

Connect with Dylan

Facebook: http://bit.ly/2kAg2VP

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✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4 ⭐️ Review: Lea Coll’s Only with You, book 1 of the Annapolis Harbor series ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I’ve been waiting on writing this review about Lea Coll’s Only with You. As I’ve read some of the earlier reviews, I felt, honestly, like I was missing something. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed the basic premise of this story: a young woman trying to move away from the confines of her father’s purvey of her life (especially because her father is self-absorbed and cruel), a hero with tragic past who has struggled to truly live his life in the shadow of that tragedy, and new beginnings. All of these were the highlights of this story. As Cade and Hadley grow and move closer to each other, this book’s strength is clear. Even more, Lea Coll has situated it in one of my favorite areas of the U.S. I adore Annapolis and Baltimore, so walking these places with Cade and Hadley reminded me why I love this part of the Eastern Seaboard. 

Yet, there were parts of this story where I struggled. For one, there is an unevenness in the storytelling. What I mean by that is one minute Cade is “all in” and the very next he is out. Hadley feels as through Cade won’t be able to love her as he did his deceased wife, but the next line is her submission to him. Now, I know some of you will say…but “Professor A” this is romance, they become overcome by their chemistry and lose their self-reflection on the romance. I’ve read that often in other stories who write it well. They give those moments space to breathe, but Coll doesn’t quite do that. It makes the reader feel as though they have whiplash from the quick change of pace. Secondly, I am not a personal fan of repetition. When an author has to continuously remind us of the challenges facing the hero and heroine either personally or together, it reads like filler. And this tended to happen quite a bit in this story. 

Overall, I appreciated Cade and Hadley’s story. As these two find their happy ending, you cheer them because they struggle to find it. And many of Coll’s early readers LOVE this story. For me, though, it was difficult because the story felt slow. If you love two people working to find their HEA after personal tragedies and challenges, then you’ll like Lea Coll’s Only with You. 

P.S. Please don’t hate me. 

In love and romance,

Professor A

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✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4 1/2 ⭐️ Review: Erin Nicholas’s Making Whoopie ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 1/2

Who doesn’t love a grumpy hero and “good girl” heroine who isn’t such a “good girl?” Add in a marriage of convenience and some serious $exy scenes, and you’ve got the deliciously decadent Making Whoopie by Erin Nicholas. This book is the third book in the Hot Cakes series, and quite frankly, it’s her steamiest. It is also, in my estimation, my favorite thus far. Why?

  1. Grumpy hero Grant. Honestly, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think Grant might be on the spectrum. The guy has issues with feelings, while also being brilliant at helping people live their best lives fiscally. Unfortunately, he doesn’t quite realize that he isn’t living his best life until he becomes obsessed (yes…I think he’s a little addicted) with Josie. In the best kind of trope, grumpy Grant becomes tamed by sweet girl baker Josie, and it’s glorious. 
  2. Josie is much more complicated than we assume. Obviously in the first two books of the series, Sugarcoated and Forking Around, Josie is an ancillary character whom we know little of. In this book, we come to realize that Josie is a baking genius AND she’s the most self-effacing heroine. Actually, she might be tied with Jane in Forking Around. In fact, this seems to be the case with Nicolas’s heroines. Their lack of selfishness works nicely with the alpha-esque natures of their heroes.
  3. The story is poignant in its portrayal of the difficulties of working for a small business. Nicholas does a nice job of showing the challenges associated with maintaining a profitable margin which oftentimes means forgoing benefits, and perks come in the flexibility of schedule and stronger relationships between employees. Additionally, through Grant’s characterization, Nicholas shines a light on the plight of women in finding success. Both of these messages offer a gravity to a seemingly sweet story. 

Making Whoopie is probably my favorite thus far. However, Cam and Whitney’s story is next and Erin Nicholas teases it in this story. In fact, that is my biggest criticism of this story as there is a large part of it that provides some background for their book, which suggests that Making Whoopie might have been shorter without their struggles. This crossover of stories feels more significant than in the first two books. I would have liked Cam and Whitney’s story teased more towards the end of the book instead of throughout it. Yet, it did its job in that it piqued my interest in book 4. In the end, though, Nicholas does what she sets out to do: offering a romance that fogs your glasses and tickles your heart. 

In love and romance,

Professor A

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✍🏻 Staci Hart’s next book, Star Bright, is coming July 14th, and I have a teaser/excerpt for you. If you haven’t preordered this yet, grab it today. ✍🏻

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Star Bright, the first in Staci Hart’s brand new Bright Young Things series, is coming July 14th. Mark your calendars and get ready to find out all about Cecelia Beaton. Check out a teaser below!

Ash hit me in the chest with the back of his hand, but when I shot him a look, he wasn’t looking at me. He was staring in front of us.
At her.
She floated toward us like a north magnet through a sea of norths that parted as she approached and closed behind her, a bubble of force keeping them just out of reach in deference or awe or both. Eyes, bright as glittering diamonds, were locked on mine, her lips touched with the ghost of a curve at the corners, the promise of a smile. Everything about her glittered—the finger waves in her golden hair, the crystals dotting the band of her fascinator, the reflective beads on her dress.
That dress. White chiffon and silver lace, twinkling beads trimming the deep V, the ghostly fabric hugging the curves of her body from rib to hip before cascading to the ground. Tiny strands of silver beads capped her shoulders like a draping spiderweb, heavy with sparkling dew.
But my eyes snagged hers again, lustrous blue eyes lined with smoky kohl and long lashes, her skin pale and perfect but for the rise of color in her cheeks and the blood-red of her narrow, lush lips.
A tug somewhere in the expanse of my chest urged me to meet her as she drifted toward me.
Not Ash.
Me.
Because if she was a north magnet, I was a south. And it seemed both of us knew it.

Pre-order your copy of Star Bright from your preferred retailer today!

Amazon | B&N | Kobo |AppleBooks | Goodreads

You are cordially invited to the party of the century.

There’s no greater thrill than in the moment a courier hands you the heavy invitation with those words etched on the front. Because you just joined the most exclusive group in New York.

The Bright Young Things.

Lavish parties. Irreverent treasure hunts. Every event is a spectacle, stalked not only by the media, but by the police commissioner, who’s declared himself the morality police, heading up a charge leading to raids and arrests and the constant threat of danger.

But that’s all part of the fun.

That, and the secrets.

Like, who sponsors these parties? The trail leads back to one mysterious name, an homage to the original Bright Young Things of a century ago: Cecelia Beaton.

And no one knows it’s me.

Everyone has secrets, and mine is safe. Until I meet him.

He comes out of nowhere, armed with ample charm and a tilted smile. Dark eyes promise to devour me—all I have to do is give him permission. And before I realize it, he finds his way into my heart, into my life, with dangerous ease.

Because he has secrets of his own, secrets that could bring down everything I’ve built.

Even the best kept secrets have a way of getting out.

And if mine does, I’ll lose more than my heart.

Staci has been a lot of things up to this point in her life — a graphic designer, an entrepreneur, a seamstress, a clothing and handbag designer, a waitress. Can’t forget that. She’s also been a mom, with three little girls who are sure to grow up to break a number of hearts. She’s been a wife, though she’s certainly not the cleanest, or the best cook. She’s also super, duper fun at a party, especially if she’s been drinking whiskey. When she’s not writing, she’s reading, sleeping, gaming, or designing graphics.

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✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 5 ⭐️ Review: Jolie Vines’s Fallen Snow, Book 4 in the Wild Scots series ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

What happens when life changes in an instant, when the dreams you had for yourself are changed? Well, according to Jolie Vines’s newest book, Fallen Snow, you find a different soft place to land. Whether that soft place is family or friends or a love interest, the challenges of life can be softened, and your heart can be mended. After reading Fallen Snow, I have determined that it is my favorite Wild Scots book to date. Much like the first three books of this series, our favorite older characters are part and parcel of the story, building a nostalgia for Vines’s earlier works. More importantly, though, is Vines’s characterization of Viola and Leo. That is the ultimate gift of this newest book from Jolie Vines.

So why should you read Fallen Snow? Here goes:

*Viola is now my favorite Vines heroine. After reading other reviews, I know this is a common thought about this book. If you’ve read Vines’s other books, you know that she has a way of crafting women who are both vulnerable and strong (some of them more vulnerable than others). Viola is more of this perfect blend except that she has a sensibility too. Much like her father Gourdain, and her mother, Ella, she has a practicality to her character that allows her to look through the challenges of her romance with Leo. I personally adored that about her. When so many romances use heroines who become emotionally unglued easily when Viola encounters trials, she mourns the ease of life, but she never backs down from the trial. She encounters and endures it, coming out on the backside of it a better heroine. Vines is insightful in developing her character, showing readers how to endure and grow in the midst of challenges.

*Leo is a complicated hero. I was thinking about him in the context of the Marry the Scots and Wild Scots heroes, and he continues the Vines mantra for her heroes: love the heroine at any cost. This is my favorite part of reading a Vines book; it’s what I comment on the most in her books. She realizes heroes into stories that don’t struggle with their love for the heroine. Yes, their lives might be complicated, and they struggle to fit the heroine into that complication. However, they will always and forever love and adore the heroine. For romance readers, there is a comfort in knowing that Vines consistently writes this type of heroic archetype. Your anxiousness for their happy ending never revolves around her hero’s love for the heroine; it is always about their ability to brave their journey. 

*The ancillary characters of this story remind you why you love Vines’s storytelling. Gourdain and Ella are more present in Fallen Snow than the other parents have been in the first three books of the Wild Scots series. Or maybe it’s that I fell in love again with Gourdain again. I loved his character immensely in Hero. He continues that devotion and adoration for his daughter and wife into this one. In fact, without spoiling anything, he transfers some of that onto another character which offered up some of the most emotional parts of Fallen Snow. Even more, we have the return of a somewhat villainous character from an earlier book, connecting us, once again, to Vines’s larger universe. These moments hit against those feelings of nostalgia for Vines’s earlier books. 

When you finish reading a Jolie Vines romance, you come away with an admonishment for greater truths of life. Dreams are important, but life can change them easily. This is the essence of Fallen Snow, and the beauty of this story is recognizing that changing one’s dreams isn’t a rejection of them. Instead, it’s simply finding a new place to inhabit. Given our times, I think this message is a worthy one, and Jolie Vines has articulated it so beautifully into this newest book that you come away feeling like you can take on the challenges of our own world, as long as you have love. For me, Viola and Leo and Vines’s Fallen Snow is my favorite Vines book thus far. 

In love and romance,

Professor A

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✍🏻 Surprise! Karina Halle’s forthcoming book, One Hot Italian Summer’s cover is HERE! ✍🏻

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One Hot Italian Summer, coming Summer 2020 from The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, & USA Today bestselling author Karina Halle!

Cover Designer: Hang Le

After the death of her best friend and writing partner, Grace Harper is struggling both with grief, and with her next novel, the first one she’ll have to write alone.

Fortunately, her new powerhouse agent, the formidable Jana Lee, has a solution for her. She can stay at her villa in Tuscany for a month, soak in the sunshine, relax, and find her confidence again. After all, Jana has a lot riding on Grace’s next book, and the last thing she wants is for her reputation as a “super-agent” to be tarnished.

At first the villa is a dream come true for Grace – that is until Claudio Romano shows up one day with his ten-year-old son, Vanni, in tow. Turns out, this is Claudio’s house, and Claudio happens to be her agent’s ex-husband from long ago. Thanks to their annual father and son bonding trip being canceled, Claudio and Vanni are here to stay.

So is Grace.

With the three of them sharing the same house, Grace’s writing plans are thrown out the window. But even if she’s not pounding the keyboard, she’s still finding beauty and inspiration…in none other than Claudio. He’s unlike any man Grace has met before. He’s smart, charming, and wickedly sexy, plus a great father to Vanni. He’d be the perfect summer fling – if only he wasn’t completely off-limits.

But as the hot Italian summer wears on, Grace and Claudio are destined to succumb to the heat, no matter how hard they try to resist each other. One steamy encounter with Claudio could affect Grace’s chances of starting her career over.
Or he could be exactly what she needs.

Meet Karina:

Karina Halle is a former travel writer, music journalist & screenwriter, and The New York Times, Wall Street Journal & USA Today Bestselling author of over 55 bestselling novels, ranging from horror and suspense to contemporary romance. She lives on an island off the coast of British Columbia with her husband, and her adopted pitbull Bruce, where she drinks a lot of wine, hikes a lot of trails and devours a lot of books.
Halle is represented by the Root Literary Agency and is both self-published and published by Simon & Schuster, Hachette & Montlake. Her work has been translated and published in 20 languages.
Hit her up on Instagram at @authorHalle, on Twitter at @MetalBlonde and on Facebook. You can also visit http://www.authorkarinahalle.com and sign up for the newsletter for news, excerpts, previews, private book signing sales and more.

Connect with Karina:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorkarinahalle/
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http://authorkarinahalle.com

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✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 5 ⭐️ Review: Kandi Steiner’s Make Me Hate You ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

There are moments when you read Kandi Steiner’s Make Me Hate You and you cannot help but recognize pieces of Steiner’s soul left on the page. Every moment of this story is exquisite even as it, at times, breaks your heart. To be honest, there were occasions in this book when I had to stop and read something a bit more predictable and comfortable to allay my anxiousness over Tyler and Jasmine’s journey. However, in the midst of the angst that Steiner so aptly creates, there is the beauty of a timeless love story that unravels your own soul, as I imagine it did to Steiner in putting it on the page. Every turn of the page is a fall into the undying love story of two people whom fate challenges at every turn. And every new page offers the promise of their moving beyond their challenges to their forever story. Steiner seems to create their romance effortlessly, reminding her readers of the brilliance of her writing. 

From the first page, I was captivated by Steiner’s characterization of Jasmine and Tyler. There is a constant push and pull between these two that keeps you enthralled. I found myself holding my breath with their every meeting, wondering if they could ever work out the difficulties of their past, a past that Steiner lays out from the start of her book. You want Tyler and Jasmine to work, but Steiner never makes that easy on her reader. Instead, she hits at your heart over and over again, making you ask yourself why you come back time and time again for her brand of torture. And the simple answer is because she writes it beautifully, because she knows that love isn’t easy and love stories shouldn’t be either, and because the pay off of the ending is greater when the journey is fraught with the difficulties of life. I loved every moment of Jasmine and Tyler’s journey because there is a beauty in both the challenges and peaks of life. You cannot feel the depth of them without the other in contrast. Allowing yourself the opportunity to feel these moments feels decadent as you read Steiner’s Make Me Hate You. 

Intertwined with Steiner’s evolution of her characters is her natural ability to place words on the page. While your heart bleeds at the strife of her characters’ story, you can’t help but fall madly in love with Steiner’s skill at stringing words together to create powerful moments on the page. When she writes,

“With his arms around me, I could do anything.

With his arms around me, everything was whole.

His arms were my home.” 

this repetition reads like an incantation or a prayer. Her story is spotted with these moments, and they overwhelm you as a reader just as her story catapults you forward. Highlight after highlight reveals the dream of Steiner’s writing, and it’s one of the many reasons you feel compelled through the story, mining for the treasures of Steiner’s craft. 

At the end of Make Me Hate You, the grief of the characters’ loss over the past reminds you that we have to live in the present and place hope in the future. I think that’s one of the big ideas behind Kandi Steiner’s newest book. Even more, Steiner utilizes one of the storylines that hits against a bruise in my own soul; it’s one that affects me time and time again in the stories of romancelandia: the want to be chosen, to be seen. Without spoiling anything, Tyler sees Jasmine from the start, and she knows this, but he doesn’t always choose her first. For me, that idea always tugs at my heart because we all want to be seen and chosen first especially when we’ve not been chosen ever. In the moments of her story where Steiner capitalizes on the emotions of the human soul, you want to both turn away and lean deeper into its truth. That really is the genius of a book such as Make Me Hate You. It makes you feel big emotions while reminding you that love isn’t always easy, but it seems essential to living abundantly. 

In love and romance,

Professor A

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✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4 1/2 ⭐️ Review: Lexi Blake’s Charmed, A Masters and Mercenaries Novella ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 1/2

It doesn’t matter that I entered Lexi Blake’s Masters and Mercenaries series with her spin-off, Masters and Mercenaries: The Forgotten. There are clearly books to be read and stories to inhale, but jumping into this series midstream has only whetted my interest in the series as a whole. Charmed, the newest novella from 1001 Dark Nights, is the type of story that feels like an extra cherry on a huge hot fudge sundae. Without having read the other Lexi Blake novellas in the 1001 Dark Nights series, Charmed reads as essential, but also tertiary to the Masters and Mercenaries world, and it’s perfection in its ability to grab your attention from the first page. 

I read this novella in an afternoon, caught in the grasp of Nina and JT’s sultry romance. What does Lexi Blake do well with this story and the other Masters and Mercenaries stories? For one, she grabs your attention with the suspense side of her plot. Nina is a former agent for Interpol who has begun working for the security firm of McKay-Taggart. She has been brought in to help JT’s family’s company determine who has or is committing corporate espionage. Initially, she is tasked with acting as the CEO’s assistant during a corporate retreat; however, when the CEO falls ill, his son, JT, must step into his father’s role. Without having met JT or seen pictures of him prior to her meeting, she doesn’t realize that the one-night stand from the night before is JT, complicating their mission. Even more, when a mix-up occurs, their relationship becomes characterized as a fake engagement, not an assistantship. This makes Nina question her ability to complete the mission. 

Secondly, Blake keeps you engaged in the progression of her story. Charmed is equal parts suspense and romance. This means the characters are either hitting the sheets or seeking out the bad guys. This is unendingly riveting. Thirdly, there is an emotional gravitas to the story in the characterization of Nina. This woman is complicated because her past has changed her perspective on life, her present is complicated by a hero who wants all parts of her, and as a woman, she fights for her equality in a male-dominated career. Blake uses Nina to engage in a discussion about agency and due respect when the alpha-JT tries to undermine it. This feels key to liking Charmed. 

From start to finish, Charmed is (1) $exy, (2) suspenseful, and (3) entertaining. I ate up this story, hoping for JT and Nina to find their happy ending. Even more, many of your McKay-Taggart agents are found in the pages of Lexi Blake’s Charmed. It’s everything you love about her books in a bite-sized form. 

In love and romance,


Professor A