book nerd – Professor Romance

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4 ⭐️ Review: Sarina Bowen’s A Little Too Late, book 1 of the Madigan Mountain series ✍🏻

October 4, 2022 professorromance

Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Tropes: second chance romance; workplace romance; fractured family; adversaries-to-lovers

“It’s healthy to wreck an unfinished thing so you can start over and build something stronger. It’s not okay to break something just because it hurts to look at it. That’s what I did to us. I’ll always be sorry.”

Reed and Ava, the first couple of the newest Madigan Mountain series, exemplify complicated. Sarina Bowen hits her readers hard with their second chance at romance, adversarial journey. Interestingly, this isn’t the only complicated relationship in the first book of this series, A Little Too Late. There are broken connections strewn throughout this book. Thankfully, this is a romance, so there is a guaranteed happy ending, but what is most compelling about this story is its focus on the reality of relationships: they may be fractured, but they needn’t remain that way. Most can be mended with care, tenacity, and a huge “I’m sorry.” Bowen deftly weaves this truth through her newest book.

Here are the aspects of the book that made it a good read:

After Ava and Reed’s break-up, Ava finds a family on Madigan Mountain. She compiles a group of strong, independent women to support her. This group of women provides a counterbalance to the re-emergence of Reed in her life. When the story grows heavy with the trials of their reconciliation, the reader can rest in the humor and wisdom provided by this group.
Reed’s journey is fairly typical of the overworking, ambitious MMC. He’s all work and little play (what little “play” he engages in is transactional at best). This means his journey will be the most profound, and this is true for Reed. I will say that, for me, Reed is my least favorite character in this story. There are a variety of reasons which I won’t post here to avoid spoilers, but I didn’t care much for him throughout most of the book. He redeems himself, but I wouldn’t say he’s a favorite Sarina Bowen MMC of mine.
While Reed, for me, isn’t a favorite character, Ava is. With that, though, is her book-long struggle to grow vulnerable again with Reed. If you’re looking for a quick fix for this couple, it takes most of the book for it. However, Ava is the impetus for any real change between these two. Even though she vacillates between hating and wanting Reed, her eventual openness with Reed becomes the impetus for his final change. Her forgiveness and willingness to move forward become their resolution, making her characterization much more interesting.

Sarina Bowen’s A Little Too Late is a good emotional start to the Madigan Mountain series. Is it my favorite story from Sarina Bowen? No. Did it meet its purpose? I believe so. It provided the background necessary for the books coming from Rebecca Yarros and Devney Perry while also gifting us a complicated couple who reminds us that brokenness isn’t bad unless we don’t try to repair it.

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✍🏻 Have you grabbed Meagan Brandy’s The Deal Dilemma yet? It’s LIVE NOW! ✍🏻

September 26, 2022September 26, 2022 professorromance

Release Date: September 23

𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙣 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙗𝙧𝙞𝙗𝙚𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙗𝙧𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧’𝙨 𝙚𝙭-𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙥𝙤𝙥 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙧𝙮?

𝙔𝙚𝙖𝙝, 𝙢𝙚 𝙚𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙄 𝙙𝙞𝙙 𝙞𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙮𝙬𝙖𝙮. 𝙉𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙤𝙙𝙮 𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝙞𝙨 𝙢𝙖𝙙𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙄 𝙘𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙖 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙡.

𝙊𝙣𝙚 𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙣’𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙛𝙪𝙨𝙚…

Crew Taylor is the picture of perfection, if gruff, grumpy, and prone to throw a punch is your type. Clearly, it’s mine or I wouldn’t be begging him to bite the bullet and claim my virginity as his own.

Sure, he’s a bit of a caveman, broody and bossy and oh so naughty, but that’s sort of the point.

He’s experienced, his heated hazel eyes promising sinful skills in seduction, and I want him to teach me all he knows.

Lesson by lesson.

Night after night.

The problem?

He says he won’t allow me in his bed … but I wonder what it would take to get him to play in mine a bit?

Grab Your Copy Here!

Available in Kindle Unlimited

Meet Meagan Brandy

Meagan Brandy is a USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author of New Adult and Sports Romance books.

Born and raised in California, she is a married mother of three crazy boys who keep her bouncing from one sports field to another, depending on the season, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Starbucks is her best friend and words are her sanity.

To learn more about Meagan and her books, visit here!

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✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 3.5 ⭐️ Review: Allie Everhart’s If I Could ✍🏻

July 22, 2022July 22, 2022 professorromance

Overall Grade: 3.5 ⭐️

Each month, I’ve decided to read a new author to me. Based on her cover’s subtle, beautiful design and her blurb that teases but gives nothing away, I chose Allie Everhart for her book, If I Could. With the promise of angst, I dived into this new book. Everhart’s story is good, utilizing a treasure trove of tropes” small-town romance, a bit of suspense, opposites attract, and a little hate-to-love with attraction at first. Was I hoping for a bit more from it? Yes. Was it as angsty as I believed? No.

Her main characters, Kyle and Sage, are likable. Even in the beginning when Kyle attempts to put Sage off with his grumpy demeanor, you want to know his story. Everhart crafts Sage in a way that we can know her; we easily earn her backstory. However, Everhart utilizes Kyle to create the suspense of her story. We don’t learn much of his background until almost 80 percent. This has two repercussions: 1) there is an inconsistency in Kyle’s characterization. For me, this created problems partly because Kyle’s changes in mood were immediate. It causes a whiplash effect throughout much of the book. Secondly, it slows the pacing of the book down. The actual action of the story comes much later. This means Kyle and Sage’s story spins in a circle for much of the book. This was frustrating as a reader, and I found myself easily pulled from Kyle and Sage’s romance.

The ancillary characters of the story, Hank, Nina, and Josh, bring levity to Sage and Kyle’s journey. I’d love to see a book for Nina and Josh. In fact, I think they’d have more chemistry than Sage and Kyle. Because, ultimately, that is what was missing for me. The investment in feeling didn’t occur until almost the end of the book. Even then, Kyle and Sage are sweet, but they didn’t impress themselves upon me.

Will I read more from Allie Everhart based on If I Could? If it’s the right book. Maybe another cover and blurb will capture my attention, but I was expecting a bit more from this book than I received. Did I like Kyle and Sage? Yes. Did their story steal my breath and tap into my emotions? Not really.

In love and romance,

Professor A