Tag: #book-review

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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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✍🏻 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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✍🏻 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

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✍🏻 Love Lexi Blake? Her newest Masters and Mercenaries book is HERE. Charmed is LIVE, and it is a wild ride of romance. ✍🏻

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“Beautifully written and deliciously hot.”
-Angela Knight, New York Times bestselling author

Charmed, an all-new novella in the fan-favorite Masters and Mercenaries series by New York Times bestselling author Lexi Blake, is available now!

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From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lexi Blake comes a new story in her Masters and Mercenaries series…

JT Malone is lucky, and he knows it. He is the heir to a billion-dollar petroleum empire, and he has a loving family. Between his good looks and his charm, he can have almost any woman he wants. The world is his oyster, and he really likes oysters. So why does it all feel so empty?

Nina Blunt is pretty sure she’s cursed. She worked her way up through the ranks at Interpol, fighting for every step with hard work and discipline. Then she lost it all because she loved the wrong person. Rebuilding her career with McKay-Taggart, she can’t help but feel lonely. It seems everyone around her is finding love and starting families. But she knows that isn’t for her. She has vowed never to make the mistake of falling in love again.

JT comes to McKay-Taggart for assistance rooting out a corporate spy, and Nina signs on to the job. Their working relationship becomes tricky, however, as their personal chemistry flares like a wildfire. Completing the assignment without giving in to the attraction that threatens to overwhelm them seems like it might be the most difficult part of the job. When danger strikes, will they be able to count on each other when the bullets are flying? If not, JT’s charmed life might just come to an end.

Charmed ipad available now

Download your copy today, exclusively on Amazon!

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3e7Aaoj

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

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About Lexi Blake

New York Times bestselling author Lexi Blake lives in North Texas with her husband and three kids. Since starting her publishing journey in 2010, she’s sold over three million copies of her books. She began writing at a young age, concentrating on plays and journalism. It wasn’t until she started writing romance that she found success. She likes to find humor in the strangest places and believes in happy endings.

Connect with Lexi

Facebook: http://bit.ly/339Svf9

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Website: https://www.lexiblake.net

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✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4 1/2 ⭐️ Review: P. Dangelico’s Carried Away ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 1/2

“‘You are not your history any more than I am mine.’ Or anymore [sic} than Jake is, for that matter.”

What do you do when life doesn’t go in the direction you expected? How do you move past your plans and embrace the life that’s fallen into your lap? Even more, what if those earlier plans really didn’t fulfill you or give you the life you never knew you wanted? These questions underlie P. Dangelico’s newest book, Carried Away. Along with these ideas about how we live life, there is also an additional message about letting go of the hurts of our past. These two messages conspire to offer a story that will hold your heart in its pages.  

The story follows Carrie Anderson, a recently unemployed reporter. Having to return home after unemployment isn’t something Carrie wants, but it’s necessary. On her way back home, she crashes her car and is saved from freezing to death by a mysterious man. Enter Jake, Dangelico’s hero, a moody, grumpy, handsome man, and the sparks begin to fly. As these two continue to run into each other, their chemistry builds until it can’t be denied. But Carrie intends to return to her former life, and Jake has set himself in exile. Is it possible for these two to find a happy ending?

I picked up my ARC a few days ago to read finally, and I intended to only read a few chapters at a time. P. Danglico’s storytelling is the type of writing that should be savored because it can slip through your fingers quickly, and before you know it, you come to the end of the story. And that is exactly what happened to me. One minute, I was starting Chapter 1, and then the next minute, I had finished the book. I didn’t stop for anything because Carrie and Jake together grab you. 

  1. Jake is my favorite type of romantic hero. On the outside, he looks unfriendly and unapproachable. However, you find out fairly quickly that he is heroic, kind, insightful, and loving. This is a big man with a big heart, hiding behind a mistake from his past. And this is my “catnip” in romance. It’s easy to invest your heart in a hero who is more than we initially perceive.
  2. Carrie’s particular journey is a difficult one. At first glance, it seems like just a loss of a job. However, Dangelico has crafted a heroine who has deeper wounds, and moving back to the town where those wounds were created and festered creates some of the gravity of this story. We know, as romance readers, that there has to be some soulful reflection and changes in order to move away from past hurts towards the adventures that she pines for. 
  3. The story travels easily across the page. Much of this has to do with Dangelico’s style. She grabs you from the start and keeps you trapped in her pages because you don’t want to be anywhere else. As Jake and Carrie move towards a possible future together, you feel compelled to keep reading to ensure they receive their happy ending. I would say that the pace of the story moves quickly towards the end, and I would have liked for Dangelico to move more slowly, developing some aspects of the latter part of the story. It feels a bit rushed. However, it doesn’t push you out of her story; instead, it makes you yearn for more of it. 

P. Dangelico is a favorite author of mine, and I have loved her stories. However, you never know if the next book will be the book you might not enjoy. That is DEFINITELY not the case with Carried Away. As she does every single time, she makes you fall for her hero and heroine’s journey, and this book is a keen reminder to live life in the present, choosing now instead of the past. 

In love and romance,

Professor A

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✍🏻 ✓ Grumpy, sexy hero. ✓ Uncertain heroine. ✓ Life as an adventure. This is P. Dangelico’s Carried Away. I loved this book, and so will you. ✍🏻

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Carried Away, a brand new standalone contemporary romance by P. Dangelico, is coming June 16, 2020!

Carrie Anderson––truth seeker, storyteller, journalist-at-large––is bad at social media and great at getting herself into trouble.

When she’s fired from her dream job for an ill-advised tweet, she has no other choice but to return to the town where she grew up with her head hung low.

It’s temporary after all. She can work at her family’s bed and breakfast, fix her finances, and get back to her life and home in Los Angeles.

There’s only one not-so-little problem…the grouchy ex-NHL star making her rethink what home means.

Jake Turner––great at hockey, bad at people––is not a happy man.

Haunted by his past, all he wants is to disappear into obscurity, to get away from the scrutiny of the press he’s been under since going pro at nineteen. But when the press finds him, disappearing is no longer an option.

Worse yet, the same journalist he’s trying to avoid is making him reconsider whether being forgotten is what he really wants.

Download your copy today!

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2JG7960
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About P. Dangelico:

P. Dangelico loves romance in all forms, cuddly creatures (four legged and two), really bloody sexy pulp, the NY Jets (although she’s reconsidering after this season), and to while away the day at the barn (apparently she does her best thinking shoveling horse crap). What she’s not enamored with is referring to herself in the third person and social media so don’t expect her to get on Twitter anytime soon. Oh, and although she was born in Italy, she’s been Jersey Strong since she turned six.

Connect with P. Dangelico:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p.dangelico/
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Website: http://www.pdangelico.com/
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