Alice Yates is the hired “homemaker” for the Morrisons, an affluent couple in Minneapolis. For Alice, it’s a dream job to dress up like a 1950s housewife and read romance novels to Mr. Morrison before his afternoon nap.
But when the Morrisons’ only daughter returns home for the summer with her fiancé, Alice comes face- to-face with her shattered past—the only threat to her perfect life.
Eight years earlier, vacation rental owner Murphy Paddon had an impeccable vinyl record collection and did the most irresistible thing before kissing Alice, earning him a five-star rating. Their fortnight love affair was life-altering and ended tragically.
Murphy doesn’t know if Alice remembers him or whether he should tell his fiancée that the hired-help living in the guesthouse is the woman who irreparably broke his heart. He needs closure, but will the lingering glances and silent yearning lead to the end or just the beginning?
Grab your copy of The Homemaker, from USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, Jewel E. Ann, and lose yourself in this forbidden, high-stakes romance.
Download today or read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited
I wasn’t supposed to love him. I wasn’t even supposed to acknowledge him. But my entire life, I’ve had heart-eyes for my oldest brother’s former best friend, Cortland Haven.
I can’t help it that boys can be stupid, and a feud broke apart a long-time friendship and divided once-close families.
Try as I might to ignore Cort, I didn’t miss his eyes on me from across a crowded bar, twelve years ago. Oh, the way my skin tingled under his appraisal. The way my heart pattered knowing he was looking at me.
We shared more than a moment.
Now, we’re older and wiser. And with a little over a decade age gap between us, and a divide greater than that between our families, my heart still hasn’t gotten the memo.
No, that fickle organ has other plans for Cortland and me.
Especially when the silver fox is my son’s new baseball coach and I suddenly find myself assigned as his physical therapist.
I don’t just fall for the man adverse to touch, I tumble hard for him, when he should never be mine.
Meet L.B. Dunbar:
L.B. Dunbar loves sexy silver foxes, second chances, and small towns. If you enjoy older characters in your romance reads, including a hero with a little silver in his scruff and a heroine rediscovering her worth, then welcome to romance for those over 40. L.B. Dunbar’s signature works include women and men in their prime taking another turn at love and happily ever after. She’s a USA TODAY Bestseller as well as #1 Bestseller on Amazon in Later in Life Romance with her Lakeside Cottage and Road Trips & Romance series. L.B. lives in Chicago with her own sexy silver fox.
To get all the scoop about the self-proclaimed queen of silver fox romance, join her on Facebook at Loving L.B. or receive her monthly newsletter, Love Notes.
A.L. Jackson has revealed the gorgeous covers for Hold Me Until Morning!
Releasing: July 1, 2024
Cover Design: Sarah Sentz
Model Cover Photographer: Wander Aguiar
I should have known I’d be playing with fire when I found the sexy as hell woman moving in next door…
It was pouring rain, so I figured the neighborly thing to do would be to lend a hand.
I nearly dropped to my knees when I realized who she was.
Hailey Wagner.
It’s been six years since I’ve seen her, and she’s always been the one person on earth who is off limits.
My past sins I’ve kept like an ugly secret made sure of that.
Too bad this single mom with the soulful eyes still makes my pulse speed the way it did back then, and I soon find our chemistry is just as strong.
When I find her ex threatening her, I insist on staying with Hailey and her little girl until I’m sure they’re safe.
I thought I could handle being under her roof. Only the tension between us strains, and with one forbidden kiss, all restraint is lost. We collide in a lightning bolt of greed, the two of us locked behind her door night after night.
Falling so hard I know there will be no coming back from it.
But being with Hailey exposes the past I’ve been trying to hide, and I’ll do anything to protect her from it. Because if I don’t? We’re both going to pay the consequences…
A.L. Jackson is the New York Times & USA Today Bestselling author of contemporary romance. She writes emotional, sexy, heart-filled stories about boys who usually like to be a little bit bad.
If she’s not writing, you can find her hanging out by the pool with her family, sipping cocktails with her friends, or of course with her nose buried in a book.
Tropes: second chances; age gap; boss/employee; forced proximity; grump/sunshine; workplace romance
J. Saman’s newest story, Undeniably Convenient, invites us into the next generation of characters from some of her beloved series: Boston’s Billionaire Bachelors and Irresistibly Yours. Nothing excites me more than diving into the kids’ lives and loves of past characters. And this newest book doesn’t disappoint.
Undeniably Convenient is one of J. Saman’s most intense and passionate stories yet. The characters, Katy (Callan’s niece from Irresisibly Wild) and Bennett ignite the pages with their fiery attraction. Their building chemistry and the complex situation that leads to a baby contract drive the story forward at every turn. Their inability to keep their hands off each other and Bennett’s alpha-male tendencies, especially in the bedroom, make for a captivating, explosive narrative.
Adding some of the other next-generation characters ignites an interest in future stories in this new series. We are granted access to the “bachelors” and the “irresistibly yours” series which grounds us in Saman’s universe. I love it when authors create universes to inhabit because we continue to get glimpses of some of our favorite characters. Saman has shown a penchant for this strategy, and I’m all in.
Above it all, though, is a complicated storyline in Undeniably Convenient that is tricky as Katy and Bennett reconcile and realize they can have a child together. All of this is fraught with some past villains who threaten their future and a denial of their mounting emotions, holding its readers enthralled. At least, I was engrossed in Katy and Bennett’s rollercoaster of a journey.
I will say that there are a few inconsistencies throughout the story that pulled my attention way. There was simply so much going on with this story because J. Saman’s book packs it all in.
I am ready for more of this new series. J. Saman knows exactly how to entice her audience, and Undeniably Convenient does not disappoint.
Tropes: second chance romance; single divorced dad; close proximity – neighbors; soulmates
Nora Everly has been a staple of the Smartypants Romance world. Her Oh Brother! Series is a favorite, as it’s easy to fall hard for the Monroe brothers. Everly continues this world in her newest story, Passing Notes, book 1 of the new Teachers’ Lounge series. In this book, Nick and Clara are high school sweethearts, split apart by some manipulations, only to be reunited years later. When Nick moves next door to Clara, their latent chemistry is ignited, and they must decide if they want more.
Clara is the sister of the FMCs in the Monroe brothers’ stories, and I love that Everly found a space for her to inhabit. I loved her edginess; she’s the grump of this story. It’s Nick’s almost golden retriever, pining characterization that humanizes her. My issue with Everly’s book, however, is her choice to delay a talk about the past. In my opinion, it was delayed too far into the story, and it felt manipulative to me. Instead, for me, there was a repetition of Nick and Clara’s struggles. As they grow close, one or both of them push the other way, which grows tiring after a while. They simply needed to talk, and Everly kept that from happening with too much delay.
Does Passing Notes have the charm of Smartypants Romance’s small-town world? Indeed. Am I looking forward to more stories in the Teachers’ Lounge series? For sure. Do I think Nora Everly could have taken Nick and Clara in a different direction, granting us more spice and more development of their relationship? Absolutely. She wrote a beautiful ending for this couple, and you’ll end the story with a swoony sigh. It’s the middle of the book that needs a bit more focus.
Imagine this: an author with a raging case of writer’s block finds an unexpected source of inspiration in her grumpy, gorgeous new roommate. Sounds amazing, right? Except that new roommate is my childhood best friend. And Ian Wilder has been off-limits since I was five.
It’s been over a decade since I’ve seen him, but when I return to my hometown after years away, Ian’s exactly the man I remembered. The same guy who gave me his coat on a playground when we were kids and promised he’d take care of me forever. I need a quiet place to work with this deadline looming. I need a place where my daughter can unwind. Enter Ian with an offer I can’t refuse: his spare bedroom.
It’s an easy yes. Except now the problem is I can’t stop thinking about him, and these thoughts? They’re wandering out of the friend zone. I keep imagining very creative ways to rip off his clothes. And Ian starts giving me looks of his own, the kind that make my heart race.
One night, we cross a line we can’t uncross. The lines have blurred, and our friendship is hanging by a thread.
Imagine this: a woman falling for her best friend. And she has no idea if he feels the same.
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.
When celebrity Laina Kelley bolted from her small hometown church on her wedding day, she ran to the first place that came to mind—to the home of the local farrier, a gorgeous playboy who just so happens to be her first love … and biggest frenemy.
This Much Is True by Adriana Locke is now live!
USA Today bestselling author Adriana Locke delivers a new “sweet and spicy!” standalone romance about a runaway bride who finds herself in the arms, and horse barn, of her deliciously handsome frenemy—who just so happens to be her first love.
This isn’t your average romance. It begins with me in a wedding dress, just not at an altar …
I never expected to be a runaway bride. I also never thought I’d end up on my ex’s doorstep to flee from said wedding. Now that I’m here, it’s easy to find the key in an old boot by the door and let myself inside. It’s not breaking and entering if I have a key, right?
It’s safe to say that Luke Marshall didn’t expect to find me on his couch in my wedding dress, my veil over my face in tears. He has no choice but to listen to my panic-induced plea for salvation. It’s only a matter of time before the tabloids get wind of my disappearing act, and my life is over.
Luke takes pity on me and says I can stay… on one condition.
I can’t sing for my supper—I have to earn it. I have to work in the barn alongside him, up to my elbows in horse manure. Oh—and because there’s only one bed, I get the couch.
This works … in theory. However, when sparks start flying, and the small-town farrier asks me to stay, I’ll have to decide between my life as a pop star or a second chance with my first love.
Download today or read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited
USA Today and Amazon Charts Bestselling author, Adriana Locke, writes contemporary romances about the two things she knows best—big families and small towns. Her stories are about ordinary people finding extraordinary love with the perfect combination of heart, heat, and humor.
She loves connecting with readers, fall weather, football, reading alpha heroes, everything pumpkin, and pretending to garden.
Hailing from a tiny town in the Midwest, Adriana spends her free time with her high school sweetheart (who she married over twenty years ago) and their four sons (who truly are her best work). Her kitchen may be a perpetual disaster, and if all else fails, there is always pizza.
Tropes: friends to lovers; romantic suspense; small-town romance; found family; band of brothers
Catherine Cowles is a supreme wizard when it comes to romantic suspense, although I want to make sure she’s “okay” half the time when her poor heroines encounter so much trauma in her romances. Echoes of You is dramatic and heart-rending and joyful and steamy and sweet and page-turning. From its beginning, Cowles captures her reader’s attention with her heroine’s painful background. While its beginning isn’t as dramatic as the first book of Cowles’s Lost & Found series, it’s serious and emotional as we encounter the painful reality of Maddie’s life. Over and over again, Cowles pummels her reader with the trauma from Maddie’s childhood and her broken relationship with her ex-fiance. Maddie’s journey is redeemed when Nash finally allows himself to love her as he has always wanted.
One minute, Cowles takes us from pain and despair to the summit of love as Maddie and Nash accept their long percolating feelings. But Cowles wouldn’t be her usual genius self unless she puts her MMC and FMC through trials. And poor Nash and Maddie must endure an onslaught of villainy to find their happy ending. Through it all, as a beloved reader, you know that the promise of a happy ending is on the horizon, and Cowles treats us to an especially sweet one with these two. To be fair, they deserve all the happiness in the world given the drama of their journeys.
What should you expect ultimately from Echoes of You? Lots of action that put Maddie and Nash in peril along with sentimental moments filled with Nash’s family protecting and loving Maddie beyond measure. Add to that a tension-filled journey of two friends who fight their feelings before they finally realize that their love is fated and incomparable. You cannot put down Catherine Cowles’s Echoes of You. And you will hope that the next book in the series comes soon.
Professor Romance 