Tag: found family

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.

Grab Your Copy!

https://amzn.to/47vuHnt

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!

Connect with Karla Sorensen:

http://www.karlasorensen.com/message

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new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Kristen Ashley’s Rock Chick Rematch, a 1001 Dark Nights/Blue Box Press novella in the Rock Chicks Universe ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: A

Tropes/Characteristics: soulmates; morally gray MMC; single mom; standalone in an interconnected series; found family

I didn’t realize how much I needed to read Kristen Ashley’s Rock Chick Rematch. If you’ve read her Rock Chicks series, Darius Tucker is the silent yet present, morally gray character who keeps on giving to the resolution of trepidatious situations. Yet, until now, his story along with his soulmate, Malia’s, has been unknown. Reading Rock Chick Rematch was like returning home after a long time away. Unlike many of my fellow Rock Chicks, I don’t do an annual re-read of Ashley’s stories. That’s simply because her book list is so prolific that I find myself working through it still after beginning to read her a year and a half ago. Even more, whether you are reading one of her novellas from 1001 Dark Nights/Blue Box Press or independently published full novels, Ashley treats her readers to a full meal of story. I can’t tell you the number of times I leave a novella wanting more. This isn’t the case with Rock Chick Rematch; instead, she gifts you a story between two long-suffering, but deeply-in-love characters who receive the happiest of endings. It has everything you love about the Rock Chicks and the Hot Bunch: an undying love, an MMC who protects beyond any measure of his own happiness, and a quirky, but independent FMC who keeps him and his “brothers” on their toes. 

What did I love about Rock Chick Rematch?

  • Malia is fierce. Kristen Ashley knows that you can’t gain entry into the Rock Chick world unless you can go toe to toe with a possessive, alpha-male Hot Bunch guy. I love strong female characters, and Kristen Ashley’s portrait of Malia and the Rock Chicks is exactly that. While Malia doesn’t know herself when she’s young, she figures it out quickly, and she doesn’t suffer fools, namely Darius. In fact, my only disappointment was how quickly she forgives Darius for a secret, and I understand this is a novella so KA has only so much space to write this story. However, I felt Malia’s pain and hurt, and I wanted her to revel in it a bit more. Even more, I wanted it seen and acknowledged more by the participants in that secret. Kristen Ashley has written a saint in Malia.
  • I loved Darius’s journey. That we are gifted his story is a treasure. My favorite moments of Rock Chick Rematch are Malia’s realization that Darius has become the best of his father. I won’t divulge more details, but Darius’s swooniness comes through his need to protect and care for Malia and their son, Liam. A morally gray character is always one of my favorites, and Darius has taken a top 10 spot of morally gray romance heroes for me after this book. 
  • The reunion with the Rock Chicks and Hot Bunch. This is the sweet cream of this story. If you’ve read this series from Kristen Ashley, you know that it never lets go. It sticks to your ribs forever. Being granted the opportunity to return to it, to recognize the parallels of other stories as Kristen Ashley divulges Malia and Darius’s story is the thing that will make bubbles in your soul. Everyone is here. Everyone. And there’s a nod to the future. For me, this is Kristen Ashley’s superpower: developing her universe and allowing us continued access to it even when a particular world seems closed. She knows her reader fans, and she gifts us stories such as Rock Chick Rematch constantly, earning our undying love.

Rock Chick Rematch is all caps DIVINE. I inhaled this story of lost love and love regained. I am so thankful to Kristen Ashley for writing this beautiful book about soulmates who needed to wait for their time. In the end, they find it and a wealth of happiness that will absolutely warm your soul.

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Pippa Grant’s The Bride’s Runaway Billionaire, a Three BFFs and A Wedding Romance ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: A

Tropes/Characteristics: runaway bride FMC; movie star MMC; close proximity; surprise baby; second chance; small town; found family; opposites attract

Throughout reading Pippa Grant’s The Bride’s Runaway Billionaire, I kept asking myself what is it about her romances that tug at me. At face value, Pippa Grant writes quirky rom-coms. The group of writers I put her in is Penny Reid and Lucy Score. They have a distinct writing voice and presence in their stories. Oftentimes, the face of the story is laden with quirky characters and inconceivable plot points. However, by the end of the romance, it’s clear this is a facade. Beneath cute animals such Yolko Ohno, the one-legged chicken, in Grant’s newest offering and the over-the-top antics of the supporting cast of characters abides a deep, loving relationship between her MMC and FMC. There is always something deep below the surface of Pippa Grant’s romances, and the marriage of the light facade with the depth of character rendering is why I always come back for more. 

Throughout Grant’s most recent series, Three BFFs and a Wedding, she’s crafted a small-town world where everyone knows everything and everyone else, and it feels tempestuous at times. In the first two books of the series, she has a big problem: how to handle the upended wedding between Emma and Chandler. Book 2, The Gossip and the Grump, is where she holds us in suspense about Emma’s situation, and she wallops us at the end of that book with a surprise. Crafting this series in this way sets up The Bride’s Runaway Billionaire to be the most anticipated story of the series, which has the potential to cause a problem: what happens if Book 3 doesn’t live up to the hype? Well, you need not fear because, for this reader, The Bride’s Runaway Billionaire is my favorite of the three. Grant definitely saved the best for last, and she fulfilled the promise of creating a series that ends with the cherry on top of the sundae. Why did I love it so much?

  1. Emma makes her MMC work for it. I love that. I’m not a fan of second-chance romances where the hurt FMC lets go of her pain too easily. It undermines the tension of the reconciliation, and Grant superbly takes her reader through the paces of the MMC’s groveling.
  2. What this does is make us fall deeply in love with her MMC. Here’s the thing: I am attempting to write this review without naming him. I know others will do it in their reviews; however, I won’t. Grab the book and find out for yourself. Just know that the inclusion of this MMC into this book is pure genius. It connects the Pippa Grant universe (which I’m a particular fan of doing – it shows me that an author has a distinct and intelligent plan for her stories, even if she figured it out at the last minute. Plus it allows us re-entry into a book world that we previously loved). Secondly, Grant has written this MMC to be everything we need him to be for Emma’s journey. He takes responsibility, he recognizes his shortcomings, there is no gas-lighting, and he accepts his reckoning, all while falling deeply, madly in love with a character who has suffered previously. This is the type of heroic characterization that makes a reader swoon. 
  3. The family of friends in this series is pure joy. The needling, the love, the respect – everything with this cast of friends adds another layer to The Bride’s Runaway Billionaire. The reflections and the reconciliations make for a feel-good read.

Almost a week out from reading Pippa Grant’s newest book, and it still swims in my mind. Emma and her MMC were a delight to read, and I’m so thankful that Pippa Grant knows who she is as a writer because her books bring so much light into a world that oftentimes feels dark. The Bride’s Runaway Billionaire is simply a must-read.

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release

✍🏻 They say to always be careful around the quiet broody ones. I’m fairly certain J. Saman has saved the very best for last with Irresistibly Dangerous, out NOW! ✍🏻

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Georgia Monroe. Billionaire Heiress. Stunning. My best friends’ cousin. The woman whose heart I broke six years ago. And now my fake wife. 

Irresistibly Dangerous  by J. Saman is now live! 

For the record, I knew I never should have touched her.

She was everything good in this world and I was everything but.

I was too broken to care about how off-limits my best friends’ cousin was.

And I didn’t want to stop.

She was the air I needed while drowning in darkness.

Until I broke her heart and finally forced myself to do the right thing and walk away.

Six years later she’s on my doorstep asking me for a favor I can’t say no to.

Only a marriage of convenience to Georgia Monroe is anything but convenient.

Not with how I still crave her despite the promises I made to never touch her again.

Not with the dangers lurking around us, coming after her in ways she knows nothing about.

I’m the only one who can help her.

Her dark knight. A silent hacker.

The cold, broody man who never felt worthy of her love.

But now everything is different.

I’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe and prove I deserve a second chance at owning this irresistibly dangerous woman’s heart.

No matter what comes my way. 

  Download today or read for FREE with #kindleunlimited

Amazon: http://geni.us/IrresistiblyDangerous       

Goodreads: https://bit.ly/46XCeL0 

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Meet J. Saman

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J. Saman is a USA Today and Amazon top 40 bestselling author who writes sassy, swoony, and scorching contemporary romances. She is addicted to Diet Coke, sour candy, and indie rock. She swears way too much (especially after a glass of wine) and has a penchant for sarcasm (or so her husband and children like to tell her).

J. is an admitted lover of second chance romances, enemies to lovers, and the perfect amount of angst. She is best known for writing funny and emotional romances filled with smart, strong women, and sexy alphas who have a softer side—especially for their women.

Connect with J. Saman

Website: http://jsamanbooks.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14923699.J_Saman

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/J.-Saman/author/B01FOIUR46

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jsamanbooks

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/jsamansradtasticreaders

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/jsamanbooks

Twitter: http://twitter.com/jsamanbooks

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

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/j-saman

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/jsamanbooks/

Verve: https://ververomance.com/app/jsamanbooks

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. ✍🏻

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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
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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Cover Reveal

✍🏻 A fan of single dad/nanny romance with a huge helping of romantic suspense? Then check out this gorgeous cover for the next story in Catherine Cowles’s The Lost & Found series, Ashes of You! Who’s been ready for Lawson’s book? This READER!!! ✍🏻

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USA Today bestseller, Catherine Cowles, has revealed the covers for the next suspenseful small town romance in her bestselling Lost & Found series, coming February 8th!

✔️ Single Dad x Nanny

✔️ Age Gap

✔️ Missed Connections

✔️ Touch Her and D!e Vibes

✔️ Serial Unaliver

✔️ Slow Burn

✔️ Forced Proximity

✔️ Found Family

Pre-Order Now ➝ 

eBook: https://geni.us/AshesofYouAmzn

Audio, Narrated by Ava Erickson & Sebastian York: https://geni.us/AshesofYouAudio

Cover Design by Hang Le

Photography by Lauren Perry

 

Five years ago, I nearly lost everything. But there was a glimmer of hope on that darkest night. There was him—a stranger I could never forget.

Now, I’m finally getting the fresh start I’ve longed for. But when I show up to interview for a nanny position in the small mountain town, the single dad has startlingly familiar blue eyes.

Eyes that have haunted my dreams for the past five years.

Lawson Hartley is everything I know I can’t have. Older, handsome, and my boss. Not to mention the shadows in his eyes that tell me he has demons, too.

Still, he seems to understand me better than anyone I’ve ever met. So gentle and careful of my scars, yet somehow making me believe I’m stronger than I ever thought possible.

And when his lips touch mine, I’m lost.

We find what we’ve been missing in each other. But the terrors of my past aren’t done with me yet, and this time, Lawson might not be able to save me…

Pre-Order Now ➝ 

eBook: https://geni.us/AshesofYouAmzn

Audio, Narrated by Ava Erickson & Sebastian York: https://geni.us/AshesofYouAudio

About Catherine Cowles

Writer of words. Drinker of Diet Cokes. Lover of all things cute and furry, especially her dog. Catherine has had her nose in a book since the time she could read and finally decided to write down some of her own stories. When she’s not writing she can be found exploring her home state of Oregon, listening to true crime podcasts, or searching for her next book boyfriend.

Connect with Catherine

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2IEQXSw

Facebook: http://bit.ly/2Lc4mU0

Twitter: https://twitter.com/catherinecowles

Pinterest: http://bit.ly/2RFY7Jv

Instagram: http://bit.ly/31TE3rJ

Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2xdUZLn 

BookBub: http://bit.ly/2J3dWWF

Website: https://www.catherinecowles.com/

Stay up to date with Catherine by joining her mail list: 

http://bit.ly/2JZE0DH

Cover Reveal

✍🏻 Karla Sorensen’s Head Over Heels is coming January 24th. Check out this gorgeous cover, and get ready for all the sparks! ✍🏻

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HEAD OVER HEELS

Karla Sorensen

Release Date: January 24

 

WILL BE 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.

Pre-Order Link:

https://amzn.to/47vuHnt

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.

For more information on Karla Sorensen and her books visit: http://www.karlasorensen.com/

Connect with Karla Sorensen:

http://www.karlasorensen.com/message

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new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Laney Hatcher’s Last on the List, the final book in the Bartholomew series ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: A-

Tropes: surprise pregnancy; best friend’s brother; sister’s best friend; banter; enemies to lovers to vibes; found family

Laney Hatcher has definitely saved her best for last. Last on the List, the final story of her Bartholomew series, offers an apt end to this touchingly irreverent historical romance series. The Bartholomew siblings have definitely captured my heart, and Silas and Mary are the cherry on the hot fudge of this delicious romantic sundae. 

Whenever you write a couple with the type of fiery banter that Mary and Silas engage in, you know the story will be engaging. Hatcher deftly carries us through their “hate to love,” fiery attraction, friends with benefits, and angsty romance. I loved the pacing of their journey even though Mary’s secrecy and want to protect Silas would frustrate any reader. Yet, this is the crux of the surprise pregnancy trope, and Hatcher allows us to rest in that tension for much of the book. She needs this space, however, to help Silas recognize his love for Mary (no surprise!), but even more, understand her background and its impact on Mary’s sense of self so he can love her the best. Even more, Hatcher grants them the space to learn to “see” the other better than anyone else. This takes a careful hand and decided storytelling to do it well, and Hatcher, in my opinion, has done it in Last on the List. 

The ending of this story is poetry as we say goodbye to the Bartholomew siblings while also celebrating who Mary and Silas have become as a couple and parents. Laney Hatcher has done nothing more than make me fall deeper in love with her brand of historical romance. Hoping for more stories from her soon.

In love and romance,

Professor A

Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Skye Warren’s White Lies, book 2 of her Smoke and Mirrors trilogy ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: B- / C+

Tropes: age gap; dark romance; small town vibes; found family; circus romance

Skye Warren’s White Lies is the second book of her newest Smoke and Mirrors trilogy. It features the commanding Logan and the beguiling Sienna embroiled in test after test of their love. White Lies handles the cliffhanger left at the end of book 1 of the series, Red Flags, but it inevitably leaves us on another one at the end of this story. 

I want to be frank. I struggled with White Lies. I love Skye Warren’s brand of dark romance, and I’ve read most, if not all, of her book list. I’ve been consumed with her Tanglewood world romances in the past, and I will never forget the impact of those stories on my sense of dark romance. I share this because I will continue to read her even though White Lies is one of the most inconsistent stories I’ve read from her. It felt cobbled together, and there were transitions between certain chapters that slowed her narrative pacing. Several chapters of White Lies were repetitive: Logan asking for forgiveness and Sienna vacillating between continuing to distrust him or granting it. Warren tethers Logan and Sienna together with $ex, and it’s difficult to understand and accept Logan’s undying love for her. In a word, White Lies felt rushed. 

Here’s the thing: I want to love this trilogy (it’s my first one set in the realm of a circus, and that intrigues me), but thus far, I’ve been underwhelmed by it. I will continue to read Skye Warren because I know she’ll pull it all together in Black Sheep. I was simply disappointed with White Lies. Sienna and Logan’s story deserves better.

In love and romance,


Professor A

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