Tag: small-town romance

Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4 ⭐️ Review: Adriana Locke’s More Than I Could ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Tropes; single dad with teen daughter; one month nanny; forced proximity; grump/sunshine; small-town romance

I’ve decided that there is one thing that will make my heart sing: a grump/sunshine small-town romance written by Adriana Locke. Now, I’d LOVE for her to stop writing compelling family stories because, as a reader, I want them all, a story for each new character that inhabits the pages of her books. But…but she is but one author and it takes time…time that I often hate to pass awaiting the next story in a new series of intriguing characters. This is More Than I Could, Adriana Locke’s newest story. 

Think grumpy single dad trying to parent a witty, intelligent, but complicated young woman. Add in a willful, sunshiney, intelligent, beautiful woman from the big city of Los Angeles who comes to small-town Peachwood Falls, Indiana to act as a nanny for the grumpy single dad’s thirteen-year-old daughter. From the moment they meet, Chase and Megan are combustible. Whether it’s Megan challenging Chase’s hard-headed ways or gruff communication, or it’s Chase trying but failing to stay away from Megan, they simply cannot help their attraction to each other.

Unfortunately, Megan’s situation is temporary, so Chase and Megan have to navigate their attraction while avoiding becoming serious. Best laid plans, right? This is the magic of More Than I Could. That fraught space along with Chase’s grumpiness in contrast to Megan’s spiritedness engage the reader. You don’t want to put this story down because (1) you love the characters – Megan, Chase, his brothers, the town folks and (2) you know that Locke will serve up a huge helping of a romancelandia happy ending. Which she does with aplomb. 

In her acknowledgments, Locke had hoped to craft and release a story that would allow an escape from the nastiness of the world. And she does this well in More Than I Could. It’s a story that eases along with moments of triumph for its characters that keep you suspended all the way to the sweet and spicy final page. If you’re looking for a feel-good romance with a minor side of tension, you’ll want to read Adriana Locke’s More Than I Could.

In love and romance,

Professor A

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Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4.5 ⭐️ Review: K.K. Allen’s Blanket of Stars ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

Tropes: opposites attract; forced proximity; virgin hero; MMC falls first; small-town romance; neighbors-to-friends-to-lovers

If you haven’t yet journeyed into K.K. Allen’s Camp Bexley series, right now is the perfect time to jump in. With her latest release in this series, Blanket of Stars, Allen deftly ends this series under the sparkle of stars reticent of a good romance. 

In this final book, we are introduced to Cayson Bexley, the youngest of the Bexley brothers, and quite frankly, he is the most innocent and empathic of the brothers. Even with his years in the Air Force, a usual masculine endeavor, there is something pure about Cayson, and it doesn’t make him a “beta-hero;” rather, he acts as a foil to his FMC’s typical boyfriend type. It creates this great complication and the ultimate struggle between Cayson and Olivia. K.K. Allen must reconcile Cayson’s immediate adoration and eventual love for Olivia, as she determines her worthiness of Cayson’s love. All of this is deliciously wrapped in a steam-fest that begins with Cayson’s innocence and ends with his control of their physical relationship. I know some readers might not appreciate a virginal hero; however, something about it feels female-forward, as Olivia teaches Cayson how to pleasure her. Allen is careful to balance a potential emasculation with Cayson’s growing confidence in the bedroom, so, while at first their experience is uneven, it eventually becomes a balanced partnership.

If you’re a fan of a compassionate, thoughtful good guy hero and a heroine who has enough moxie for both of them, then you’ll love K.K. Allen’s exclamation point with Blanket of Stars. She took all the threads of this series and tied them into a bow of pure romance completion.

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release

✍🏻 Grumpy/Sunshine, Single Dad/Nanny, Adriana Locke small-town romance. What’s not to love about all of this? Grab More Than I Could TODAY! ✍🏻

professorromance

MORE THAN I COULD by Adriana Locke

Release Date: February 27th

Genre/Tropes:

Grumpy + Sunshine, Single Dad + Nanny, Small Town Romance

MORE THAN I COULD by USA Today bestselling author Adriana Locke is NOW LIVE!

Grab this all-new grumpy/sunshine, single dad + nanny, small town romance TODAY!

NOW AVAILABLE! FREE IN KU!

Grab it here: https://amzn.to/3SzEToa

Add to Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31686622-more-than-i-could

EXCERPT

As soon as we’re alone, the air shifts. Shadows dance across the tabletop. Megan’s jasmine perfume scents the air, and my body temperature rises.

I struggle to remember our conversation yesterday. I remind myself that my child—the same one that occupied the seat next to me a minute ago—is my priority. Over and over, I replay all the reasons why I can’t afford to get off track.

Why I can’t touch Megan Kramer.

My muscles tighten in my stomach and across the back of my neck as I lift my gaze from the tabletop to her.

She grins. It’s simple, but when coupled with the heat in her eyes, there’s nothing sweet about it. “That was fun.”

I hold her gaze, unable to look away.

This is the first day, Chase. Twenty-nine more to go. Don’t blow it already.

I smirk and push away from the table.

I need to put some distance between us before things get really fun.

Blurb:

This nanny makes things hard for her boss.

Chase Marshall is many things:

An attentive single dad

Jaw-droppingly gorgeous

My employer for the next thirty days

He’s also the bane of my existence.

He swears I’m a never-ending headache—the most infuriating woman he’s ever met.

If I’m so irritating, then what’s up with the lingering looks when he thinks I’m not watching?

The seemingly innocent touches while making breakfast?

The smirk that graces his kissable lips after one of our verbal spars after his daughter has gone to bed?

One minute he’s coming to my rescue. The next second he’s complaining about how I fold his work shirts. Fine. Fold them yourself.

It turns out that the only time I don’t get under Chase’s skin is when I’m under him.

And that’s where things get complicated.

From USA Today Bestselling author Adriana Locke comes a grumpy, blue-collar single dad that falls hard for his new nanny. This small-town romance is a standalone novel with tons of heat and even more heart.

About the Author:

USA Today 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-five 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.

Learn more at adrianalocke.com.

Connect w/Adriana:

Website: https://adrianalocke.com

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

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/authoralocke

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

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8379774.Adriana_Locke

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3ivy7xd

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/adriana-locke

Newsletter Signup: http://bit.ly/NewsletterAddy

Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 5 ⭐️ Review: Catherine Cowles’s Whispers of You, book 1 of The Lost & Found series ✍🏻

professorromance

Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Tropes: small-town romance; second chance romance; romantic suspense; forced proximity; found family; band of brothers

Have you ever seen that episode of Grey’s Anatomy where the active shooter invades the hospital? The one that incites terror in you as you watch it. I will never forget that episode of television. Catherine Cowles’s Whispers of You has shades of that episode with its compelling, terror-inducing hook, incremental slow-burn second chance journey, and the story twist that you don’t quite see coming. For me, Whispers of You is my favorite Catherine Cowles story of her recent stories. In simple terms, this book is the rib-eye of books to her former porterhouse stories. Whispers of You held me in its thrall and engaged me to the very last page of her bonus epilogue.

Here’s the why:

  1. The hook of this book is terrifying and heartbreaking. Don’t let that dissuade you from reading it. Like I said earlier, it felt inspired by that emotional and anxiety-inducing episode of Grey’s Anatomy. I originally read this book’s beginning in one of last year’s books, and I couldn’t WAIT to read Whispers of You because of it. 
  2. I adore a resilient character. Wren is the embodiment of it. Instead of becoming a victim who lives in the shadow of her trauma, she becomes an advocate, instead. Holt is lucky to earn her heart because, honestly, she is too good for him given his choices. Cowles grants Colt grace for these choices due to his age. But had this been real life, he might not have won over his love. 
  3. The balance, however, of this story is Holt’s capacity to love and cherish Wren. Once he recognizes his former short-sightedness, he’s a delicious male character: all alpha-hero with a protective streak. Cowles deftly balances Wren’s strength and resilience with Holt’s adoration and compassion. So incredibly good!
  4. I didn’t see the depth of Cowles’s revelation coming. Yep. I’m usually attuned to the story, but I gasped at the story’s twist. I love that Cowles doesn’t take it easy on her reader.

Catherine Cowles knows herself as a writer as well as the interests of her fans. Whispers of You was an unputdownable read. It was impossible to walk away from Wren and Holt because their story is just that compelling. Fans of small-town romantic suspense – this story is for you! Oh, and there’s an impressive husky to boot!

In love and romance,

Professor A