Tag: contemporary romance

new release

✍🏻 Karla Sorensen’s Head Over Heels is one of my top reads of 2024. This story is an emotional, gorgeous read that has left me with a huge book hangover. It’s now LIVE! Don’t miss this one. ✍🏻

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HEAD OVER HEELS

Karla Sorensen

Release Date: January 24

FREE IN KINDLE UNLIMITED

There’s only one course of action when your dad wants you to marry a clammy-handed wimp to make one of his board members happy—you get yourself stuck in an elevator with a hot stranger and have the steamiest make-out session of your life. Years of etiquette lessons went out the window thanks to Cameron Wilder, who managed to unleash my hidden bad girl with naught but his talented mouth and deliciously rough hands.

Afterwards, he went back to his small-town life, and I marched home to inform my dad there would be no business-centric nuptials. As punishment, he shipped me off to Sisters, Oregon and demanded I turn a healthy profit on a not-so-healthy property.

You see where I’m going with this—the buttoned-up city girl stuck in a small town hires a local builder to help her … and he’s the hot stranger from the elevator. Turns out, I have a weakness for the broad-shouldered nice guy who’s not so nice behind closed doors. Keeping things professional gets harder the longer I’m in town, until the only lesson I have left to learn is how to keep both our hearts from getting broken.

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Meet Karla Sorensen:

Karla Sorensen is an Amazon top 20 bestselling author who refuses to read or write anything without a happily ever after. When she’s not devouring historical romance or avoiding the laundry, you can find her watching football (British AND American), HGTV or listening to Enneagram podcasts so she can psychoanalyze everyone in her life, in no particular order of importance. With a degree in Advertising and Public Relations from Grand Valley State University, she made her living in senior healthcare prior to writing full-time. Karla lives in Michigan with her husband, two boys and a big, shaggy rescue dog named Bear.

Keep up with Karla Sorensen and subscribe to her newsletter: http://www.karlasorensen.com/newsletter

To learn more about Karla Sorensen & her books, visit here!

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new release

✍🏻 You can absolutely read Kristen Ashley’s Rock Chick Rematch as a standalone. However, the beauty of this story comes if you read the series. Malia and Darius are soulmates GOLD!✍🏻

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Life cut him down, she remained.

Rock Chick Rematch, a Rock Chick novella from New York Times bestselling author Kristen Ashley, is now live!

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Kristen Ashley brings a new story in her Rock Chick series…

In high school, Malia Clark found the man of her dreams.

Darius Tucker.

But life hits them full in the face way before it ever should. Darius makes a drastic decision to keep his family safe and Malia leaves town with a secret.

When Malia returns, she seeks Darius to share all, but Darius finds out before she can tell him. At the same time, she finds out just how much Darius has changed in the years she’s been away.

She just refuses to give up on him.

Until he forces her hand.

Secrets come between Malia and Darius, at the same time Malia has to worry about weird things going on at the law firm where she works, her kid wants a car and she’s stuck in slow-cooker hell. Luckily, her ride or dies have her back.
And in the meantime, she might just learn she never should have lost hope in Darius Tucker.

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Keep reading for a look inside Rock Chick Rematch!

I’d wanted to be a lawyer.
But life was tough with a curious two-year-old, even if my mom and dad and sister and all the aunties and uncles and cousins pitched in to help me out.
I needed to keep my nose clean.
And I needed to stay away from Darius Tucker.
Everyone told me he’d turned to the dark side.
However, I thought it was time. It was time he shook himself out of this garbage.
It was time he learned he had a child and had to step up.
It was time three years ago, but I’d been young and scared and hurt, so I’d made an emotional decision and my parents had stepped in to support and protect me.
Off I went to Fort Collins.
Now I was back.
So, yeah.
It was time.

For More Information about Kristen Ashley, visit her website:
https://www.kristenashley.net/

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✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Vi Keeland’s What Happens at the Lake ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: A- / B+

Tropes: small town romance; grump-sunshine; insta-attraction; he falls first, but reluctantly; overcome the past; neighbors/close proximity

Overcoming the traumas of our past is a continuous theme in literature. The power the past holds to keep us from experiencing the depths of our present impacts almost all of us. In her newest story, Vi Keeland wraps up the truth about letting go in a simmering, spicy romance replete with witty banter, an interfering small town, and a dose of angst. What Happens at the Lake is everything we’ve come to love in a Vi Keeland contemporary romance. She entices you with a beginning that piques your curiosity with its light-heartedness, and she wallops you in the middle with the depths of “life.” Marrying the congeniality of fiction with the emotional gravitas of real life, Keeland engages her readers easily. 

And it’s easy to love Josie and Fox, her main characters. These are not simplistic renderings as trope titles and blurbs would assert. While Josie is the light to Fox’s dark, she holds gradients of both. Fox is no different. When Keeland writes him at his grumpiest, there is still a charm and humor in his characterization. It’s difficult to dislike him even at his most churlish. Keeland has deftly woven his backstory throughout the romance so motivations are understood and sympathy granted to the hard-hearted, emotoinally unavailable Fox. She further showcases her adeptness at drawing complicated characters in making him the first to fall. The relationship-allergic becomes the most emotionally incapacitated by it. While Vi Keeland’s characters first inhabit the pages of her stories as enemies or opponents, she carefully plots to unwind that tension so as to draw the emotions out of her readers. And she succeeds every single time. 

Along with the capable rendering of her characters, in this book, she gifts us with the ameliorating power of the found family in the small town, Laurel Lake, America’s Friendliest Town. Incorporating various characters adds humor to the story as well as wizened guides for both of the characters. This setting is key to undermining the tension between Josie and Fox, and it provides a respite when the story becomes emotionally difficult. There is wisdom in adding this “found family” to both Josie and Fox’s journey. 

Vi Keeland’s What Happens at the Lake is a wonderful read, one that warms your soul and steams your glasses (or panties). The strife, the spice, and the tomfoolery conspire to remind you why you can never pass on a Vi Keeland story.

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release

✍🏻 Two things I LOVE in contemporary romance: a grumpy, emotionally closed-off MMC and his foil, the sunshiney, independent, charming FMC who ROCKS his world. The other thing: small-town antics that add heat to the fire of the couple. You’ll find all of that deliciousness in Vi Keeland’s What Happens At the Lake. Let’s just say that I INHALED this book…and it’s LIVE early on on the ‘Zon. ✍🏻

professorromance
Title: What Happens at the Lake
Author: Vi Keeland
Genre: Standalone Contemporary Romance
Trope: Grumpy-Sunshine
Release Date: January 15, 2024
BLURB
When life took an unexpected turn, I decided to get out of New York for a while. What better place to go than the idyllic small town my father spoke about so fondly when I was growing up? Laurel Lake held the title America’s Friendliest Town for seventeen years running, and friendly was just what I needed right now.
Unfortunately, friendly wasn’t the welcome I got when I arrived.
Instead, I got Fox Cassidy. My tall, dark, and burly neighbor, who grunted at me instead of saying hello.
Okay, so I might’ve had his mailbox in my hands the first time we met. And it might’ve been a little crushed after removing it from under my tire. And I might’ve needed his help breaking into the place I was staying in after the key broke off in the lock. But still…he didn’t have to be so grumpy.
As time went on though, I started to notice things about Fox other than his glares. Like how he watched me when he thought I wasn’t looking, or how fire ignited in his eyes whenever we bickered. Though I was in Laurel Lake to escape my problems, not create new ones. And getting involved with a man like Fox screamed trouble, even if he was gorgeous and unlike any man I’d ever met.
But alas, problem seemed to be my middle name this year. So why not have some fun while I was here for the summer? It seemed like a good plan. At least until it was time to go home…
They say what happens at the lake, stays at the lake. But it’s not so easy to walk away when what stays behind…is your heart.
PURCHASE LINKS
AUTHOR BIO
Vi Keeland is a #1 New York Times, #1 Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling author. With millions of books sold, her titles are currently translated in twenty-seven languages and have appeared on bestseller lists in the US, Germany, Brazil, Bulgaria, Israel, and Hungary. Three of her short stories have been turned into films by Passionflix, and two of her books are currently optioned for movies. She resides in New York with her husband and their three children where she is living out her own happily ever after with the boy she met at age six.
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Excerpt/Sneak Peek

✍🏻 I fell in love with What Happens at the Lake, the grump/sunshine neighbor story, from Vi Keeland. Check out the sneak peek here! ✍🏻

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Title: What Happens at the Lake
Author: Vi Keeland
Genre: Standalone Contemporary Romance
Trope: Grumpy-Sunshine
Release Date: January 15, 2024
Take a sneak peek at WHAT HAPPENS AT THE LAKE.
You know you want to…

She smelled like damn summer.

And it pissed me off.
Plus, I was tired from a shitty night’s sleep. I’d tossed and turned thinking about Little Miss Home Improvement wearing nothing but a pair of denim short overalls and work boots—no shirt, no socks, definitely no bra or underwear.
Josie hopped down from the last two steps on the ladder. “Can I ask you something?”
“What?”
“Are you always this grumpy in the morning?”
“I’m not grumpy.”
“No? So this is what? Your idea of a sparkling personality? I asked if your coffee was okay, and you grunted at me.”
“That wasn’t a grunt. That was a yes.”
Josie made a short, deep noise that sounded like a pig.
I arched a brow. “Is that supposed to be me?”
She made the sound again, this time adding some monkeylike arm movements and jumping around. “Gronk.”
“Cute.”
She jumped again. “Gronk. Gronk.”
I tried not to react, but she was just too damn adorable.
Josie pointed at my face. “There it is again. The elusive Mr. Grumpy Pants smile. It’s kind of…dare I say…nice.” She made an exaggerated gasping sound and covered her mouth. “Oh no. I hope it’s not too painful.”
“Alright, wiseass. I get the point. How about you take your oinking ass out front and grab one of the small two by fours I left on the porch? I’ll show you how to make an easy support to hold up the drywall while it gets screwed into the ceiling.”
Josie strutted to the door. The woman was wearing a white tank top and long, pale pink, flowy skirt to do construction. It looked like she was going on a picnic date, rather than hanging sheetrock—though the tank top hugged her in all the right places, and there was something about her collarbone that I couldn’t drag my eyes away from. She bent to pick up the wood out front, and the top of her tank gaped open, giving me a clear view down her shirt. I forced my head in the other direction, though my eyes managed to slant and continue looking.
“Jesus Christ,” I grumbled to myself. “I need to get the fu¢k out of here.”

★★★ 


Excited? We are too!

RELEASING
JANUARY 15th!

PRE-ORDER LINKS

Please note: There will not be an Amazon ebook pre-order, but it will be available on Amazon on release day.



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AUTHOR BIO

Vi Keeland is a #1 New York Times, #1 Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling author. With millions of books sold, her titles are currently translated in twenty-seven languages and have appeared on bestseller lists in the US, Germany, Brazil, Bulgaria, Israel, and Hungary. Three of her short stories have been turned into films by Passionflix, and two of her books are currently optioned for movies. She resides in New York with her husband and their three children where she is living out her own happily ever after with the boy she met at age six.

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new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Devney Perry’s Sable Peak, the final The Edens series romance ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: A

Tropes: unrequited love; small town romance; found family

Without a doubt, Devney Perry’s Sable Peak, the final book of her The Edens series, is phenomenal. In totality, this series has been a breath of fresh air in romance reading over the past year as it focuses on a generational family, the central focus of a small town in Montana. But Sable Peak did something that the other books in the series, even more than the other books in Perry’s booklist, don’t: change her formula.

For the most part, Perry follows a pretty standard 3 act structure with some type of separation of her MMC and FMC at the 80% mark. Many romance authors follow this narrative structure, and we, the readers, love it…except that it can be tiresome. With Sable Peak, Perry’s structure still follows a 3 act structure, but the packaging looks a bit different. Add to it the unrequited love of Vera, an exceptionally complex character in her stable of characters, and it makes for emotional peaks and valleys between Mateo, her MMC, and Vera. Perry first creates the tension through Vera’s point of view when she realizes Mateo only sees her as a friend or sister-figure. Perry stays away, at the beginning of the story, from flipping between Vera’s and Mateo’s points of view, instead building the tension of her story solely through Vera’s point of view. I found it compelling. Once the inciting incident begins, the story between Vera and Mateo ignites and turns into the type of story we love from Perry. Adding in the complication of Vera’s relationship with her father simply adds another layer of tension to the story, actually drawing Vera and Mateo closer together. 

Everything you love about a Devney Perry romance is found in Sable Peak: a sweet, yet spicy romance set in a small-town setting, a family that loves beyond its members, and an ending that steals your breath as her FMC and MMC find their way to an epic happily-ever-after. This time, Devney Perry broke her mold a bit, and it worked for her (at least it did for this reader). Here’s to hoping for more story experimentation while offering the type of romances we expect from her.

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release

✍🏻 If you’ve been spending any time with Catherine Bybee’s D’Angelos, you know Salena. Now, it’s her turn. The Whole Time is LIVE, and a book you don’t want to miss. ✍🏻

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From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author
Catherine Bybee comes a tale of a strong-willed dancer
exercising her independence and the rich biker she can’t let go.

About The Whole Time
Salena Barone has broken free of her family and moved into an apartment above the D’Angelos’ restaurant, where she works as a manager—without a husband, thank you very much. But even on a restaurant salary, she soon finds herself strapped for cash. Salena’s never been afraid of living on the wild side, though, so she takes on a side hustle that’ll raise
big bucks…and eyebrows, if anyone finds out.

Tattooed biker Ryan is the youngest of the wealthy Rutledge wine family and has never dreamed of rings, forever, or continuing the family business. He’s perfectly happy living his own life and helping out hardworking folks in his own
way.

When these two independent singles spot each other at a Rutledge-D’Angelo wedding, the attraction is instant. But as their friendship with benefits evolves into something more, the secrets Salena’s keeping—from family, friends, and Ryan—threaten the happily ever after she never knew she wanted.

About the Author
Catherine is a #1 Wall Street Journal, Amazon, and Indie Reader bestselling author. In addition, her books have also graced The New York Times and USA Today bestsellers lists. In total she has written thirty-nine beloved books that
have collectively sold more than 10 million copies and have been translated into more than twenty languages.

Raised in Washington State, Bybee moved to Southern California in the hope of becoming a movie star. After growing bored with waiting tables, she returned to school and became a registered nurse, spending most of her career in urban emergency rooms. She now writes full time and has penned the Not Quite series, The Weekday Brides series, the Most Likely To series, and the First Wives series. Learn more about Catherine and her books at http://www.catherinebybee.com

new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Louise Bay’s Dr. Fake Fiance ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: B

Tropes: he falls first; fake engagement; pop star FMC; golden retriever MMC

Louise Bay’s Dr. Fake Fiance is definitely my favorite story of her The Doctors series. All of the stories in these books offer FMCs and MMCs that burrow their way into your heart. However, Beau and Vivan have something a bit more magical between them. For one, at a time when Swifties have fallen hard for Taylor and Travis Kelce’s romance, Beau and Vivian’s story has a similar feel. It’s easy to love Beau in Dr. Fake Fiance. He doesn’t take life too seriously and doesn’t know that Vivian is a superstar in hiding. He is a loveable “golden retriever” of a hero. In contrast, Vivian is guarded. She’s been hurt by the machinations of her former long-time fiance and burned by the media. London provides her with the perfect cover, but Vivian and Beau’s instant chemistry makes it difficult for her to keep hiding. Louise Bay has crafted Vivan and Beau so that friendship quickly morphs into something deeper and scary for both of them. While Beau is seemingly easy-going, we recognize that his past trauma has actually impacted him more than he ever suspects, and Vivian is granted the opportunity to take control of her life. Their story arcs are interesting and engaging, and you will find yourself cheering for their happy ending. 

Add to this the cornerstone of Bay’s The Doctors series: the familial bond of Beau’s family. This is the tether between the stories, and it acts as the grounding force for the internal struggles of this series’s heroes and heroines. It does the same for Vivian and Beau, allowing them some normalcy in their chaotic world. The guidance of Beau’s parents and his brothers’ wisdom becomes the impetus for Beau to move forward. 

If your Roman Empire is currently the Taylor + Travis romance, you absolutely want to read Louise Bay’s Dr. Fake Fiance. 

In love and romance,

Professor A

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new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Jewel E. Ann’s Because of Her ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: A

Jewel E. Ann’s Because of Her is a true gem. I was honored to edit this book, so I read it early on. It’s been a month or so, and this book has stayed with me. Jackson/Jax/Jude Day is one of a handful of characters whose story was penetrating. I will never forget him at the end of Out of Love, offering the ultimate parental sacrifice. I felt that deep. When Jewel announced this resolution, this final story, in a series of standalone books, I wanted to celebrate. As I read her manuscript, a process that causes a distance of feeling from the story, I found myself drawn to Frankie and Jackson. Even more, it made me pine for more of this family: Jessica and Luke and Livy and Slade. Even though this book can be read as a standalone, what I loved the most is the return to this beloved world. Jewel doesn’t hold us away from Jackson’s family. She gives us access and resolution in a way that fans like me needed after Out of Love. 

If you haven’t read this series, here’s why you should read this story: 

  1. A wildly protective, assassin of a man MMC. Yes, he’s older, but he’s wildly attractive
  2. An FMC who reminds me of Jackson’s sister. You don’t have to read her Jack and Jill trilogy (although you should) to get a sense of the one person Jackson believes to be his soulmate: his sister, Jessica. Frankie embodies the same qualities: headstrong, fierce, independent, and protective.
  3. Jewel writes romances that follow the beat of their own drum. It’s hard to pin tropes on them. She intentionally rips up her characters’ lives and their storyline to interrogate different aspects of human nature. For example, one of the challenges for readers is the idea of ethics: what are you willing to do for revenge? Should you sell your soul to mete out revenge on a person who has wronged you? Jackson and Frankie turn this inside out and upside down throughout the story. This is but one of many themes she tests throughout this book as well as the rest of the books on her booklist.
  4. I’ve said this before in many reviews, but it’s important to say it again: Jewel E. Ann is a queen of quotable nuggets. As I was reading her manuscript, I would highlight sentences and type “this is a great teaser.” She wordsmiths at a level that astounds me.
  5. And finally, her intentionality in crafting romances that aren’t formulaic should get people to read Because of Her. This point is the main reason you should download your booklist today and get reading. Her voice and sense of authorial identity are unique in romancelandia. 

Jewel E. Ann’s Because of Her is the true final chapter of her Jack and Jill series. Yes, it can be read without the others, but to read it before the rest is to miss out on Jewel E. Ann’s genius. If I had any recommendation, I would download the entire series and binge-read it in one weekend. You’ll fall madly, deeply in love with Jackson, Frankie, Jessica, Luke, Livy, and Slade…

In love and romance,


Professor A

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new release

✍🏻 Jewel E. Ann’s Because of Her is the ending you needed to her Jack and Jill series. This book will make you laugh and cry in equal measure. Run and grab it for your weekend reading NOW. ✍🏻

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Because of Her by Jewel E. Ann is now live! 

“If sin weren’t pretty, it wouldn’t be so tempting.”

I was an accomplished music professor.

Happily single. 

Perfectly content.

Now, I’m unemployed.

Pining for a dark, brooding guy named Jack who lives in a garage with a piano.

And I’m plotting to seduce a married man because his daughter is responsible for my nephew committing suicide.

I don’t know why teenage girls are so mean. 

I don’t know why rich men cheat on their wives. 

And I don’t know why Jack has serial killer vibes, even though he leaves me speechless every time he speaks.

All I know for sure is that I feel safe in a stranger’s arms and understood by someone I don’t understand.

“You should be a little scared of everyone because humans are unpredictable.” 

How far will I go for revenge? More than that …

How far will he go to save me? 


*This book contains material involving sexual assault and suicide. Reader discretion is advised.

  Download today or read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited

https://books2read.com/u/m2EEER

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Meet Jewel E. Ann

Jewel is a Wall Street Journal & USA Today bestselling author with a quirky sense of humor. When she’s not saving the planet one tree at a time, you can find her role modeling questionable behavior to her three boys, binge-watching Netflix with her husband, and writing mind-bending romance. 

Connect with Jewel

Website: https://www.jeweleann.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7505427.Jewel_E_Ann

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Jewel-E-Ann/e/B00IJYHDIG/

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