FALL IS HERE!!! I love October because I feel like I finally have time to read and hibernate. The nights are longer and that means the reading time is as well! Now that we have about 100 days left in the year, I want to fill it with so much romance! This month we have paranormal finds, reads that turn up your sweet tooth and one that gets your angst levels even higher!
Baking me Crazy by Karla Sorenson
I’m Levi Buchanan, and until five years ago, I thought the legend of my family’s curse was a load of crazy, Southern nonsense.
No curse can make you fall in love at first sight. No curse can force a true, deep, passionate, all-consuming love that will haunt you all the days of your life.
Then I met Jocelyn Abernathy and I realized how completely wrong I was.
The problem is, Jocelyn guards her feelings like well-armed soldier. She’s the most beautiful, stubborn, infuriating woman I’ve ever met. Every time she talks, I want to kiss the living daylights out of her. But I can’t.
Because when we met, she didn’t need true love. She needed a best friend. And that’s what I’ve been to her… for five years.
But when Jocelyn meets a handsome stranger her first day working at Donner Bakery and she lets him buy her a dill pickle cupcake, I realize with ominous regret that I may have missed my window with my best friend.
If I can’t get her to see past our friendship, my new curse may be to watch the love of my life move on with someone else.
‘Baking Me Crazy‘ is a full-length contemporary romantic comedy, can be read as a standalone, and is book#1 in the Donner Bakery series, Green Valley World, Penny Reid Book Universe
Penny Reid is opening her world of characters to other authors to create more stories that we are clamoring for! This is the first in the Green Valley World (where the Winston Brother’s stories take place). I loved the honesty of the characters, especially the heroine. This is a trademark of the people of Green Valley and Sorenson embraces it. The heroine is a little different than the norm and I greatly enjoyed exploring the different nuances of her world. This is a friends to lovers story with a lot of angst! I was rooting for the hero but also wanted the heroine to figure herself out. I think the story nailed how a partner can support you while you do internal heavy lifting. The emotions were authentic and the writing displayed it really well. It was a great set up for the rest of the series and I can’t wait to see who is next.
War of Hearts by S. Young
Thea Quinn has no idea what she is. All she knows is that her abilities have been a plague upon her life since she was a child. After years of suffering at the hands of a megalomaniac, Thea escaped and has been on the run ever since.
The leadership and protection of his pack are of the utmost importance to Conall MacLennan, Alpha and Chief of Clan MacLennan, the last werewolf pack in Scotland. Which is why watching his sister slowly die of a lycanthropic disease is emotional torture. When Conall is approached by a businessman who offers a cure for his sister in exchange for the use of Conall’s rare tracking ability, Conall forges an unbreakable contract with him. He has to find and retrieve the key to the cure: dangerous murderer, Thea Quinn.
Thea’s attempts to evade the ruthless werewolf are not only thwarted by the Alpha, but by outside dangers. With no choice but to rely on one another for survival, truths are revealed, intensifying a passionate connection they both fight to resist. At war with themselves and each other, Conall and Thea’s journey to Scotland forces them to face a heartrending choice between love and betrayal.
It’s October, of course we need a paranormal read! This is the pen name of Samantha Young, a staple for me in contemporary romance. Thea is running from her past and the enemy that threatens her existence. She’s successful in hiding until she meets her match. We explore many different areas of Europe that bring new and exciting twists to the story. The suspense keeps you turning the pages as you find out more and more about the enemies Thea is facing. Conall went into this mission with one goal, capture Thea, he had no idea he would be biting off a lot more than he can chew. Conall is the Alpha but he also exudes compassion and an understanding of people that makes him the perfect hero. I love the banter between the two as they’re stuck trying to make the situation right. There’s adventure, angst, tension and so much suspense, it’s a solid read for all my paranormal loving friends.
Code of Conduct by April White
There are three things you need to know about Shane P.I. 1) P.I. is not her last name, it’s her job title, 2) Her specialty is catching cheaters, and 3) she’s a superhuman – kind of.
Gabriel is a security expert for Cipher Security, and a former UN Peacekeeper with a fierce protective streak that finds its focus on the beautiful P.I.
Their attraction is like an elephant in a room full of breakable things, and figuring out how to trust each other with their hearts, and maybe their lives, is the most fragile thing of all.
‘Code of Conduct‘ is book#1 in the Cipher Office series, is a full-length romantic suspense novel, and can be read as a standalone.
Happy Trail by Daisy Prescott
A man of few words, Ranger Jay Daniels values the calm, quiet solitude of the Great Smoky Mountains. Never quite fitting in with either side of his family, he prefers the company of birds and trees to people.
Yeah, he’d most definitely prefer a bird—any bird, any bird at all, take a vulture for instance—to the human-tornado hybrid that just blew onto his peaceful stretch of the Appalachian Trail.
The path of true love never has run smooth for Olive Perry. After getting dumped and promptly abandoned in the middle of her multi-month hike, Olive swears off men. Determined to finish the long trek by herself, she doesn’t need a prince—or broody and taciturn ranger—to save her.
Yet, when an early snowstorm threatens the mountains, and Ranger Daniels is charged with getting hikers to safety, that includes hot-tempered Olive Perry. Snowed in and forced to share an abandoned cabin, can Olive’s heated intensity melt Jay’s cool reserve?
And if so, will this happy trail lead to true love? Or will their time together be just another bump in the road?
Twice in a Blue Moon by Christina Lauren
Sam Brandis was Tate Jones’s first: Her first love. Her first everything. Including her first heartbreak.
During a whirlwind two-week vacation abroad, Sam and Tate fell for each other in only the way that first loves do: sharing all of their hopes, dreams, and deepest secrets along the way. Sam was the first, and only, person that Tate—the long-lost daughter of one of the world’s biggest film stars—ever revealed her identity to. So when it became clear her trust was misplaced, her world shattered for good.
Fourteen years later, Tate, now an up-and-coming actress, only thinks about her first love every once in a blue moon. When she steps onto the set of her first big break, he’s the last person she expects to see. Yet here Sam is, the same charming, confident man she knew, but even more alluring than she remembered. Forced to confront the man who betrayed her, Tate must ask herself if it’s possible to do the wrong thing for the right reason… and whether “once in a lifetime” can come around twice.
With Christina Lauren’s signature “beautifully written and remarkably compelling” (Sarah J. Maas, New York Times bestselling author) prose and perfect for fans of Emily Giffin and Jennifer Weiner, Twice in a Blue Moon is an unforgettable and moving novel of young love and second chances.
The Play by Elle Kennedy
What I learned after last year’s distractions cost my hockey team our entire season? No more screwing up. No more screwing, period. As the new team captain, I need a new philosophy: hockey and school now, women later. Which means that I, Hunter Davenport, am officially going celibate…no matter how hard that makes things.
But there’s nothing in the rulebook that says I can’t be friends with a woman. And I won’t lie—my new classmate Demi Davis is one cool chick. Her smart mouth is hot as hell, and so is the rest of her, but the fact that she’s got a boyfriend eliminates the temptation to touch her.
Except three months into our friendship, Demi is single and looking for a rebound.
And she’s making a play for me.
Avoiding her is impossible. We’re paired up on a yearlong school project, but I’m confident I can resist her. We’d never work, anyway. Our backgrounds are too different, our goals aren’t aligned, and her parents hate my guts.
Hooking up is a very bad idea. Now I just have to convince my body—and my heart.
This is a classic new adult book. I loved that the heroine is half Cuban from Miami, not something I read often. The author did an excellent job portraying ethnicity without it being turning into a stereotypical caricature. This is definitely a journey, the standout for me is the growth of the hero, Hunter. I enjoyed reading all the discoveries he made about himself with the help of Demi and the lovable band of brothers he calls friends. There’s plenty of old characters we love that make appearances and kept the friendly shenanigans going.
What are you FANGing over this month (see what I did there?)
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