#BookReview: The Wren in the Holly Library (The Oak and Holly Cycle #1) by K.A. Linde

Synopsis: Can you love the dark when you know what it hides?

Some things aren’t supposed to exist outside of our imagination.

Thirteen years ago, monsters emerged from the shadows and plunged Kierse’s world into a cataclysmic war of near-total destruction. The New York City she knew so well collapsed practically overnight.

In the wake of that carnage, the Monster Treaty was created. A truce...of sorts.

But tonight, Kierse―a gifted and fearless thief―will break that treaty. She’ll enter the Holly Library...not knowing it’s the home of a monster.

He’s charming. Quietly alluring. Terrifying. But he knows talent when he sees it; it’s just a matter of finding her price.

Now she’s locked into a dangerous bargain with a creature unlike any other. She’ll sacrifice her freedom. She’ll offer her skills. Together, they’ll put their own futures at risk.

But he’s been playing a game across centuries―and once she joins in, there will be no escape...

#BookBlitz for The Player by @CarinaRoseBooks and @GiveMeBooksPR

Title: The Player

A Next Generation Novel

Author: Carina Rose

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Tropes: Sports Romance/He Falls First

Secret Romance/Workplace Romance

Release Date: April 17, 2024

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He wants her, she has a job to do. Get ready to fall in love with Jimmy and Sommer in this fun, he-falls-first, next generation, sports romance brought to you by Carina Rose.

Jimmy

Another headline. What else was new?

You’d think reporters could focus on the important things in the world. But they loved to write about me, Jimmy Hall, the best pitcher in the league . . . especially when I got caught screwing up.

Thanks to the incriminating pictures from my last trip to Vegas, the team’s general manager assigned me a branding expert. I was ready to tell him I was fine on my own, but then my expert walked in, and I practically forgot my own name.

Sommer Bennett had curves in all the right places and lips that could make a man stupid. Too bad she couldn’t stand me. Even worse, she was the owner’s granddaughter, making her off-limits.

Or was she?

Sommer

When Granddad said he had a job for me, I couldn’t have been more excited. I pictured myself as the vice president of player relations or next in line to take over the Hawks. Instead, he wanted me to babysit the most arrogant player on the team: Jimmy Hall.

It didn’t matter that the man was drop-dead gorgeous or had the most strikeouts in the league. He was a PR nightmare—and now my nightmare. I’d graduated top of my class and have a master’s in business, yet I still needed to prove myself. Jimmy Hall would not be the reason I didn’t get the title I deserved. I just couldn’t fall for his charm.

Some things are easier said than done.

#BookReview: Kill Switch (Devil's Night, #3) by @PenDouglas @BerkleyRomance @lexilikestoread

 

Synopsis: One woman’s worst fears come to life in the third novel of the Devil’s Night dark romance series by New York Times bestseller Penelope Douglas, now with bonus material.

Sending Damon to prison was the worst thing Winter could’ve done. It didn’t matter that he did the crime or that she wished he was dead. Winter thought he’d cool off in jail and be anything but the horror he was, or that at the very least she’d have time to disappear before he got out.

But she was wrong. Three years came and went too fast, and prison only gave him time to plan. And while Winter anticipated his vengeance, she didn’t expect this. He doesn’t want to make her hurt. He wants to make everything hurt.

Damon knows he needs to get rid of Winter’s father, giving her, her sister, and her mother nowhere to run. The Ashby women are desperate for a knight in shining armor. But that’s not what’s coming.

It's time Damon took control of his future. It’s time he showed them all that he will never stop being the nightmare they think he is.

Damon won’t have to break into her home to do it.

As the new man of the house, he has all the keys.

#BookBlitz: One Weekend in Venice by @christi_barth @XpressoTours #Giveaway

One Weekend in Venice
Christi Barth
(One Weekend, #1)
Publication date: May 24th 2024
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Cady Staunton and Jasper Holt have been best friends forever–and only friends, aside from one unexpected kiss in Vegas eight years ago. But everything changes during a destination wedding in Venice.

Their rock band may or may not be breaking up. Jasper is definitely hiding a secret from her. Actually, they’ve both always hidden their true desires for each other. They intended to keep it that way until circumstances–and another accidental kiss–lead them to take a leap.

They’ll use this weekend in Venice to test shifting from friendship to something…more. If it doesn’t work? They’ll go back to being best friends. Except…that never works. And there’s still the problem of Jasper’s big secret and what to do about their band. Will their friendship, let alone their attempt at love, even survive the weekend?

#BookReview: A Novel Love Story by @ashposton @BerkleyRomance

Synopsis: A professor of literature finds herself caught up in a work of fiction… literally.

Eileen Merriweather loves to get lost in a good happily-ever-after. The fictional kind, anyway. Because at least imaginary men don’t leave you at the altar. She feels safe in a book. At home. Which might be why she’s so set on going to her annual book club retreat this year—she needs good friends, cheap wine, and grand romantic gestures—no matter what. 

But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it’s right out of a novel… 

Because it is. 

This place can’t be real, and yet… she’s here, in Eloraton, the town of her favorite romance series, where the candy store’s honey taffy is always sweet, the local bar’s burgers are always a little burnt, and rain always comes in the afternoon. It feels like home. It’s perfect—and perfectly frozen, trapped in the late author’s last unfinished story. 

Elsy is sure that’s why she must be here: to help bring the town to its storybook ending. 

Except there is a character in Eloraton that she can’t place—a grumpy bookstore owner with mint-green eyes, an irritatingly sexy mouth and impeccable taste in novels. And he does not want her finishing this book. 

Which is a problem because Elsy is beginning to think the town’s happily-ever-after might just be intertwined with her own.

This title will be released on June 25, 2024.

#ReleaseBlitz for The Keeper by @GKBrady_writes @GiveMeBooksPR

Title: The Keeper

Series: Fall River #1

Author: G.K. Brady

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Tropes: Small Town/Opposites Attract/Forced

Proximity/Grumpy-Sunshine/Black Sheep

Release Date: May 23, 2024

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A mountain blizzard. An injured dog. A romance that caught them both by surprise.

Hailey Bailey craves safety. Raised by an alcoholic father chasing a dream of surfing superstardom, the down-to-earth health inspector just wants a comfortable salary and benefits. But when she attempts to save a lost dog in a blizzard and causes a pickup truck to crash, she’s awed by the handsome driver who protects her from the storm.

Noah Hunnicutt can’t catch a break. Struggling to keep his tavern afloat and impress his judgmental father, the twenty-eight-year-old family pariah is also fending off an obsessed hookup and his money-grabbing, two-timing ex-girlfriend. To top it off, he never expected he’d be rescuing the very woman who made him wreck his truck. But with the gregarious beauty now stranded in town, he can’t say no when she offers to help him out by waiting tables.

Enchanted by the tiny hamlet’s cast of quirky characters, Hailey begins to envision a life there … with the hunky bar owner on her arm. But a series of menacing notes has her rethinking that future. Meanwhile, Noah discovers his troubles aren’t only with vengeful exes when the lovely lady’s smarmy boss arrives to shut his business down. As Noah grapples with doubts about Hailey's honesty, she contends with an increasingly hostile work environment that has her questioning her moral compass.

Can they overcome the outside forces working against them and cultivate a lasting love? Or will they be left to wonder what could have been?

#BookReview: Dead Girls Talking by @MeganNCPeterson @HolidayHouseBks

Synopsis: The town of Wolf Ridge calls him The Smiley Face Killer. Bettina Holland calls him her father.

Everyone knows Bettina’s father was the one who murdered her mother a decade ago. It’s the subject of podcasts, murder tours, and even a highly anticipated docuseries. But after growing up grappling with what that means, a string of copycat murders forces Bett to answer a harder What if he didn’t ?

Old-money Bett must team up with the only person willing to investigate alongside bookish goth girl Eugenia, the mortician’s daughter, who everyone says puts the makeup on corpses. Can this “true crime princess” unmask a murderer who’s much closer to home than she ever imagined?

Gritty, gripping, and propulsive from page one, Pretty Dead Girls is a ride for readers who love to see girls get their hands dirty as they claw their way to the truth. Peterson’s knife-sharp thriller cuts deep, with a wicked sense of humor, a wire-taut atmosphere, and a deadly serious approach to bigger transparency, justice, and female anger.