Tag: Opposites Attract

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Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 5 ⭐️ Review: Melanie Harlow’s Runaway Love ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Tropes: runaway bride; single dad; dad of twins; forced proximity; grump/sunshine; opposites attract

“It’s me choosing you —- just you. As you are.”

Thus far, in the month of May, Melanie Harlow’s Runaway Love is my favorite romance book. This is part Runaway Bride, Sound of Music, and Notting Hill. Two tropes that instantly grab my attention are found in this book: single dad and grump/sunshine. And Austin, Harlow’s MMC, is drawn as deliciously hot, but a grumpyumpleton to his core. Harlow balances his curmudgeon nature with two precocious twins and a family who humbles him daily. Her FMC, Veronica aka Roni, challenges him, through her sunny disposition, to recognize his self-sacrifice and consider choosing his dreams. Conversely, Austin helps Roni recognize the importance of expecting people to love her on her terms. As they work through their separate issues, Harlow infuses spice and humor, sweetness and challenge to engage her readers’ feelings, and the combination of these things causes the reader to gobble the book. At least, I did. Austin and Roni excited me, and I didn’t realize that I’d been missing the draw of reading until I fell into Austin ad Roni’s story. I felt indignant for Roni’s betrayal, cheered Austin’s sister when she decided to invite Roni to be a nanny for Austin’s children, grew annoyed with Austin’s instant judgment of Roni, became elated when Roni showed her beautiful soul, was titillated by Austin and Roni’s chemistry, and grew emotional as both Austin and Roni recognized that he needed to choose himself and his dreams and she needed to be chosen period. 

Grab Melanie Harlow’s Runaway Love if you need something to read that feeds your soul. This book will make you laugh, become misty-eyed, and fog your glasses all in one pass. This book is a total homerun.

In love and romance,

Professor A

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new release

✍🏻 Ready for book 2 of the new Smartypants Romance season? Talia Hunter’s Tough Cookie is LIVE! ✍🏻

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Tough Cookie, an all-new heartfelt fake dating small-town romance from Talia Hunter, is LIVE in Kindle Unlimited!

Noah Malone is back in his hometown for a short break from his stunt work, but his mother’s set on convincing him to settle down in Green Valley so he can give her grandbabies like the good Lord intended. Not only is she pushing him to help out at the Donner Bakery decorating cookies, but her matchmaking is relentless.

To end his mother’s awkward set-ups, Noah needs a no-strings-attached pretend girlfriend. And who better than Carla, a mysterious recluse who seems to have taken an instant dislike to him? When she reveals she’s been isolated by illness, he proposes a fake relationship that’ll stop his momma’s shenanigans and help Carla ease back into the world.

Tech-geek Carla creates a spreadsheet of fake-date challenges. She’s serious and focused on her goal of slowly becoming more social… until daredevil Noah starts messing with her spreadsheet. He’s ridiculously charming, and his sexy additions may be even more appealing than the cookies he brings her, but Carla won’t let her resistance crumble.

Opposites may attract, but can such different people find a recipe for love?

‘Tough Cookie’ is a full-length contemporary romance, can be read as a standalone, and is book #3 in the Donner Bakery series, Green Valley Chronicles, Penny Reid Book Universe.

Grab your copy TODAY!

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/3Ks706P

Amazon UK: https://bit.ly/3kpRSMp

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Amazon AU: https://bit.ly/3ZbVoc5

Audible Audiobook: http://bit.ly/3JHWd6j

Goodreads: http://bit.ly/41ueX1j

About Talia Hunter

Talia Hunter likes to include her three favorite things in her novels: toe-curling romance, snort-laughs, and heart-warming friendships. She recently moved to Australia’s beautiful Gold Coast, where she’s constantly amazed and not at all freaked out by the weird and wonderful critters. When she’s not writing, you can usually find her with a glass of wine, a good book, at least one of her three cats, and a jumbo-sized can of bug spray.

Find Talia online

Website: www.taliahunter.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/taliahunter

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talia.hunter/

TikTok: @talia_hunter_romance

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Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/talia-hunter

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new release

✍🏻 Ana Huang’s King of Pride is LIVE. Ready to jump in? ✍🏻

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She’s his opposite in every way…and the greatest temptation he’s ever known.

King of Pride by Ana Huang is now live!

Reserved, controlled, and proper to a fault, Kai Young has neither the time nor inclination for chaos—and Isabella, with her purple hair and inappropriate jokes, is chaos personified.

With a crucial CEO vote looming and a media empire at stake, the billionaire heir can’t afford the distraction she brings.

Isabella is everything he shouldn’t want, but with every look and every touch, he’s tempted to break all his rules…and claim her as his own.

***

Bold, impulsive, and full of life, Isabella Valencia has never met a party she doesn’t like or a man she couldn’t charm…except for Kai Young.

It shouldn’t matter. He’s not her type—the man translates classics into Latin for fun, and his membership at the exclusive club where she bartends means he’s strictly off limits.

But she can’t deny that, beneath his cool exterior, is a man who could make her melt with just a touch.

No matter how hard they try, they can’t resist giving into their forbidden desires.

Even if it costs them everything.

 

Download today or read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited

Amazon: https://bit.ly/3JUaJYS

Amazon Worldwide: https://mybook.to/KingofPride

Amazon Paperback: https://mybook.to/KingofPridePB

B&N Paperback: https://bit.ly/41KeszB

Audible: Coming Soon!

Add to Goodreads: http://bit.ly/3YpJBqn

 

 

Meet Ana


Ana Huang is a USA Today, international, and #1 Amazon bestselling author. Best known for her Twisted series, she writes New Adult and contemporary romance with deliciously alpha heroes, strong heroines, and plenty of steam, angst, and swoon sprinkled in.

Her books have been sold to over two dozen foreign publishers for translation and featured in outlets such as NPR, Cosmopolitan, Financial Times, and Glamour UK.

A self-professed travel enthusiast, she loves incorporating beautiful destinations into her stories and will never say no to a good chai latte.

When she’s not reading or writing, Ana is busy daydreaming and scouring Yelp for her next favorite restaurant.

Connect with Ana

Website: www.anahuang.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/authoranahuang

Amazon: https://amazon.com/author/anahuang

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authoranahuang

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

Instagram: https://instagram.com/authoranahuang

Twitter: https://twitter.com/authoranahuang

TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@authoranahuang

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/ana-huang

Pinterest: https:www.pinterest.com/authoranahuang

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Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4 ⭐️ Review: Tijan’s A Cruel Arrangement ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Tropes: anti-hero; alpha hero; mafia romance; forced proximity; grumpy/sunshine; opposites attract; heroine in danger; tragic past

Tijan’s next Kings of New York story, A Cruel Arrangement is a fitting follow-up to Tijan’s A Dirty Business. Both books envelop the reader in a harrowing tale of mafia tribulations couched in sultry romance. Where Trace and Jess’s love story is fraught with the forbidden element of their relationship, Ashton and Molly’s romance is high adrenaline from the very start to its end. 

As Tijan does well, A Cruel Arrangement is full of minute-by-minute tension. Ashton and Molly are opposites: he’s the new head of a mafia family, and Molly is the owner of a local bowling alley. Her father is a street “rat,” owned by Ashton’s family due to his extravagant gambling debt, and Ashton has taken on the family business in the wake of the deaths of his uncles. They shouldn’t work; however, something in Molly matches Ashton’s darkness, and the two are drawn together like magnets. 

This book has much to be solved because danger is afoot at every corner. Tijan places her characters in sundry difficult situations, and Ashton and Molly must work their way out of them. A Cruel Arrangement is page after page of trials, yet Ashton and Molly forge ahead, their attraction palpable on the page. Even in its darkest moments, Tijan has grafted a sweetness in Ashton and Molly’s pairing. 

Given the suspense in this book, I didn’t figure out the villain’s accomplices until Tijan revealed it. This, thankfully, kept me turning the pages of her story. The ending, however, was abrupt and not fully fleshed out. Yet, I’d like to believe there might be another book. 

If you’re an avid reader of suspenseful, dark mafia, A Cruel Arrangement will give you some good feels, but I’m not sure the most dedicated reader of mafia romance will find it dark enough. In the end, I’m here for Tijan and her stories, and this newest book didn’t disappoint. 

In love and romance,

Professor A

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new release

✍🏻 Tijan’s A Cruel Arrangement is explosive, erotic, and EVERYTHING! ✍🏻

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A Cruel Arrangement by Tijan is now live! 

This was my place. My business. Easter Lanes.

Then a guy comes in, trying to rob me, daring to take it away from me.

My home. My life.

Hell no. I won’t let my livelihood be threatened.

No one knows what I’ve done to build this life for myself.

Except he might.

Ashton Walden, a man I remember from when we were kids.

Even back then I could tell how dangerous he would be one day.

He’s now the head of the Walden mafia family, and my father is so in debt to them that they practically own him.

My dad and I are estranged and I want nothing to do with him or his debt, but the day after the attempted robbery, I don’t wake up in the hospital.

I wake up in Ashton Walden’s home. And he drops a bomb on me.

If I want my livelihood back, I need to earn it back.

And thus begins our cruel arrangement.

  Download today or read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited

Amazon: https://bit.ly/3D8g10k

Amazon Worldwide: https://mybook.to/CruelArrangement

Add to Goodreads: http://bit.ly/3wp933c

Meet Tijan

Tijan is a New York Times Bestselling author that writes suspenseful and unpredictable novels. Her characters are strong, intense, and gut-wrenchingly real with a little bit of sass on the side. Tijan began writing after college and once she started, she was hooked. She’s written multi-bestsellers including the Fallen Crest series, Ryan’s Bed, Enemies and others.
She is currently writing many new books and series with an English Cocker she adores.

 

Connect with Tijan

Website: http://www.tijansbooks.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4851199.Tijan

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tijan/e/B00DJG52QE

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tijansbooks/

Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/tijansreadergroup

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tijansbooks/

Twitter: www.twitter.com/tijansbooks

TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@tijan_author

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/tijan

   

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Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4.5 ⭐️ Review: J. Saman’s Irresistibly Perfect ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

Tropes:  friends to lovers; forbidden romance; opposites attract; forced proximity; band of brothers; found family; rockstar romance

I’m in love. I’m in love with J. Saman’s Greyson from her newest book, Irresistibly Perfect. If you had told me that I would not be able to put down a friends to lovers romance, I would have laughed at you. It isn’t my favorite trope, but I’m a fan of J. Saman’s stories. And Greyson and Fallon don’t disappoint. This is delicious friends-to-lovers romance. Greyson is swoony in that he adores Fallon even after years of estrangement. When Fallon decides to break her engagement and end her engagement, Greyson becomes her “ride-or-die” and the deliciousness of their attraction takes center stage in this book. 

What did I adore about this story?

*Once Fallon knows she’s not marrying her fiance, Greyson is intent on wooing Fallon. I was drawn into their relationship even as Fallon was denying her feelings for Greyson. His ability to win her over through spice and care is pure swoon!

*I love Fallon’s journey because I relate to her need to do what others expect. She’s the good girl, doing everything her parents want for her even if it’s at the expense of her happiness. As the details of her life unfold, J. Saman invests us in Fallon’s resolve to live her life on her terms. This quickly evolves into Greyson and Fallon acknowledging their feelings. This happens about 70 to 80% into the story, and they become a power couple through the book’s end. 

*I will always love the found family/band of brothers trope. In Saman’s series, she’s writing the camaraderie of Greyson’s former boy band members and brother in a way that begs for more stories. Their ability to be real with each other, while advising and protecting each other is a huge draw in Irresistibly Perfect. 

If you haven’t read J. Saman yet, grab this book. Even better, start with book 1, Irresistibly Broken. I dare you not to fall in love with the guys of Central Square. I can’t wait for future stories in the Irresistibly Yours series.

In love and romance,

Professor A

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Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4 ⭐️ Review: L.B. Dunbar’s Parentmoon ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Tropes: single parents; forced proximity/one bed; over 40 romance; tropical destination; insta-attraction; opposites attract; mother of the groom/father of the bride

It’s guaranteed that L.B. Dunbar is quickly cornering the market on all things over 40 romance. Her latest tome, Parentmoon, reminds us that parents can have fun too in the shadow of their children’s love. The story begins on a luxury island, where Dunbar’s FMC has agreed to take her son’s honeymoon after he and his fiancee call off their wedding. When the bride’s father comes to the island, she finds out quickly that she’s staying in his island retreat. Even though the MOG believes the FOB doesn’t like her, we find, over the course of the story, that isn’t true. What happens over the course of a 10-day island retreat is sun, spice, and sentimental promises. 

What did I love?

  • Dallas, the MMC of Parentmoon, is a force. He pushes the FMC, Keli, to embrace her sensuality and make choices for herself. While he can be frustrating at times as he doesn’t easily reveal that he hopes for Keli to be his end game, he seeks to let her know how much he admires her. As a single mom, Keli has accepted the dregs of her former marriage and lived her life to raise her son. Dallas admires her strength and tenacity, and he uses their time on the island to woo her. Nothing is more swoony than a hero who wants more than the heroine imagines.
  • Keli is an “every woman.” As you read her story, Dunbar has drawn her in such a way that readers see themselves through her experience. Just as Dallas holds back his feelings, so does Keli. And this builds the tension of the story as Dallas and Keli both share their adoration but also hold back due to their geographical distance. Dunbar chooses to enact the resolution through Keli’s character because she has the furthest to go in falling in love with Dallas. Dunbar knows that Keli’s agency is important.
  • The fun of an island setting provides the perfect backdrop for Keli and Dallas’s fierce attraction. Dunbar has inundated her story with the effects of that attraction. It’s sensual and spicy in all the best ways. I love that Keli and Dallas are over 40 and physicality is as necessary to their relationship as a character in their 20s. It allows for an older readership to find themselves in her stories.

I enjoyed L.B. Dunbar’s Parentmoon. If I had any criticism, it would be repetitiveness. This is a tendency in this book as Keli vacillates with revealing her feelings for Dallas. She recognizes her “back and forth” with him, and it becomes redundant midway through the story. However, Dallas’s sweetness at the story’s end rescues the reader from losing interest. As far as I’m concerned, Dunbar can continue to write romances for the over-40 set.

In love and romance,

Professor A

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new release

✍🏻 You’re welcome! Here’s your weekend read: Pippa Grant’s The Worst Wedding Date. ✍🏻

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Title: The Worst Wedding Date
Author: Pippa Grant
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Tropes: Best Friend’s Brother/Enemies to Lovers
Release Date: April 13, 2023
BLURB
I didn’t know bridesmaid was code for babysitter for the bride’s brother, but if that’s what my best friend needs of me for her dream wedding to go off without a hitch, that’s what I’ll do.
Even if Theo Monroe has been a pain in my rear since third grade.
Even if he should be responsible enough to not wreak havoc at his sister’s destination wedding.
Even if it means we have to share a hotel room in Hawaii, which might be the final duty that breaks me.
Not only does Theo know exactly how to push my buttons, but he never wears clothes, he’s hiding a litter of kittens in his room, and he keeps showing up with fresh-baked cookies that seemingly come from nowhere.
Also?
I have no idea why he’s being such an utter ass to the groom.
Or why he’s so proud of the world’s most awkward wedding gift.
Or why I suddenly want to know what makes him tick. The story behind his tattoos. How he can afford to rent a convertible in Hawaii. And if maybe all of that utter frustration and irritation I’ve felt for him for years is suppressed attraction that a good girl like me isn’t supposed to feel for the biggest bad boy of Snaggletooth Creek.
But I do know one thing.
When I find out his biggest secret and the answer to all of my questions, it will change everything.
The Worst Wedding Date is a frolicking good time of a destination wedding enemies-to-lovers romcom, complete with a good girl bridesmaid, her best friend’s troublemaking but secretly big-hearted brother, and more than one hitch on the way to happily ever after. It stands alone, has no cheating, and comes complete with ooey gooey goodness.
PURCHASE LINKS
AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU
Free in Kindle Unlimited
ALSO AVAILABLE
PAPERBACK / AMAZON AUDIO
AUDIBLE
AUTHOR BIO
Pippa Grant is a USA Today Bestselling author who writes romantic comedies that will make tears run down your leg. When she’s not reading, writing or sleeping, she’s being crowned employee of the month as a stay-at-home mom and housewife trying to prepare her adorable demon spawn to be productive members of society, all the while fantasizing about long walks on the beach with hot chocolate chip cookies.
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Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4.5 ⭐️ Review: Pippa Grant’s The Worst Wedding Date ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

Tropes: enemies-to-lovers; hate-to-love; forced proximity; one bed; best friend’s brother; opposites attract; bad boy-good girl; rom-com

I adore Pippa Grant. Her romances, aka rom-coms, are never what you expect but exactly what you need. Enter her latest story, The Worst Wedding Date. At first glance, Grant’s rom-coms are quirky and silly. However, below the surface, Grant works through common human troubles. This is definitely the case with The Worst Wedding Date. Some of the silliness of this story involves kittens rescued from a tropical island getaway, a tropical island getaway that is on the verge of going out of business as the backdrop for the story, an MMC who is a loud sneezer and who sneezes at the most inopportune times, and a variety of mishaps that seek to undermine the MMC’s sister’s wedding. Don’t get distracted by these moments of hilarity. If you do, you’ll miss out on the gravity of this story: a message about the impact of high or low expectations on one’s sense of self. 

The most beguiling part of Pippa Grant’s The Worst Wedding Date is Theo and Laney’s attraction and falling in love. Grant has crafted them as two sides of the same coin. Laney has been raised with perfectionistic expectations. In contrast, Theo has been raised to believe he wouldn’t amount to much. He becomes the “bad boy” to Laney’s “good girl.” And I LOVED this part of the story because Theo gets to teach Laney how to be a little bad, embracing the things she’s always wanted to do but never empowered to do so, and Laney gets to protect Theo, advocating for him when he’s blamed for every mishap. It’s these places where Grant’s deft and enjoyable storytelling grabs your heart. 

What I also loved about The Worst Wedding Date is the promise of more stories in this world. Besides Laney, the other ugly heiresses, Stella and Emma, have promises of their own stories, more quirky, charming antics to make Grant’s readers laugh while also challenging them to recognize the challenges of human nature. 

In the end, if you walk away from Pippa Grant’s newest book without that warm feeling in your chest, you may need to check your pulse.

In love and romance,

Professor A

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Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4 ⭐️ Review: Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward’s The Rules of Dating My Best Friend’s Sister ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Tropes: opposites attract; brother’s best friend; brother’s little sister; forbidden; close proximity; band of brothers; series of standalones; childhood friends; contemporary romance

Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward’s The Rules of Dating My Best Friend’s Sister has two distinctions from other stories on their booklist: 1) it’s probably one of their spiciest (there is one scene in a van that will make your jaw drop, and 2) it’s a book set in a bit of a series. That last point might seem peculiar, but my experience with Keeland and Ward is they write a one-and-done story, even if they have other compelling characters in the book. That they are taking the time to gift us with stories in a connected universe is fun. 

The foundation of Keeland and Ward’s The Law of Opposites Attract series is Ryan, the deceased friend of a group of guys. Each of them has been impacted by his death, and it has drawn them together. In fact, they own an apartment building together, thanks to him. The other tie thus far between The Rules of Dating and this newest book is the notion of opposites of attracting. In The Rules of Dating My Best Friend’s Sister, the heroine/FMC, Lala, is a buttoned-up scientist while Holden, its hero/MMC, is a musician and the “super” of the apartment building. Lala is interested in a structured, dependable life, while Holden lives by the “seat of his pants.” However, after reconnecting, their attraction is combustible. In fact, as they fight their chemistry, Lala comes to realize that she cannot marry her fiance because, while she wants a structured life, she also needs the attraction she feels with Holden. Once Lala calls off the engagement, she and Holden explode. From there, what felt like a slow burn at first, becomes a total inferno. 

What did I like about the story?

  1. Holden’s journey. In The Rules of Dating and The Rules of Dating My Best Friend’s Sister, it’s clear that Holden is a playboy, a f*ckboy. He doesn’t appear to be “relationship” material, hence the reason that Lala fights her feelings for him. However, as Lala and Holden develop their relationship, it becomes clear that Holden wants more with Lala. He has pined for her for a long time. His evolution from player to dedicated boyfriend adds a huge dose of emotional gravitas to this story.
  2. Lala’s evolution also adds to the emotional depth of The Rules of Dating My Best Friend’s Sister. Through her characterization, Keeland and Ward interrogate the pre-determined, planned life. Her journey begs the question: “should one forgo attraction for safety?” As Lala struggles with this question and her feelings for Holden, while letting go of her plan with her fiance, Keeland and Ward compound the drama of their story, creating an emotional tug to the story. As Lala navigates the choices of her life, it compels the reader forward.
  3. The band of brother relationship. I love the friends: Colby, Holden, Owen, and Brayden. Keeland and Ward have drawn them as both the humor and wizened guides of these books. When they need to break up the emotional tension of their story, they bring the guys together to add humor. The intentionality of this relationship points to the authors’ writing genius.

One of the biggest issues I found with The Rules of Dating My Best Friend’s Sister is the immaturity of the characters, specifically Holden. Thankfully, Holden matures by the end of the story, but there were several moments when I wasn’t sure that Lala should work out a relationship with Holden. I found this to undermine the impact of their coupling. 

All of that said, though, I enjoyed this book just as much as I loved the first book. I’m excited about the stories for Owen and Brayden. The promise of more stories from Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward in this small world should put a smile on any romance reader’s face.

In love and romance,

Professor A