5 stars This anthology is worth reading for Back to You, Love on a Summer Night, and Every Sweet Regret, each of which earns 5 stars from me. Sugarcoated and Mr. Dirty earn 4 stars. I couldn’t finish Wild Child or Dare to Resist, so I’m giving them 1 star each, because I can’t give them 0. Keep reading for individual reviews. 7-3-2021 Back to You - Kimberly Kincaid 5 stars When it comes to anthologies, I expect some of the books to be good and some not so good, but I rarely expect one to be as lengthy and well-developed as this one is. The characters are multifaceted and realistic while the plot is quite believable. I don’t have much medical expertise, but the realism was such that I felt like I could be reading the script for a medical drama with the level of detail offered. I feel I can safely assume the author has some experience in the medical field because she managed to explain things clearly without being condescending or overly simplistic. The love story between Charlie and Parker is relatable and sentimental. It’s relatively predictable, but that’s how you get a happy ending. There were a few clever lines that made me chuckle, like this one: “Karma hadn’t so much bitten him in the ass as it had shanked him and left him to bleed out on the linoleum.” And I loved the description of a guy “who held a cup of soda big enough to do the backstroke in one hand and a cheese Danish the size of a football in the other.” At one point, Charlie is described as “a great, big indecision casserole.” It was prose like this that kept me engaged and enjoying the story. 7-8-2021 Sugarcoated - Erin Nicholas 4 stars This was a cute friends-to-lovers romance with smalltown-boy-makes-it-big-and-becomes-a-billionaire thrown in for good measure. Aiden and Zoe have been friends forever, practically siblings. Zoe takes over the family bakery and makes it her own. Meanwhile, her older brother Cam and Aiden, along with a few other college friends, create a wildly successful video game and become billionaires. Because Zoe owns a bakery, Buttered Up, and because Aiden and his friends have decided to purchase a local business specializing in mass-produced snacks, Hot Cakes, there’s lots of sweet innuendo and fun with frosting. The reader is introduced to Zoe’s group of friends and Aiden’s group of friends/investors with the obvious intention of creating a series of romances featuring each of the characters. They’re fun characters so I have no problem with that. In fact, Erin Nicholas does an impressive job of piquing my interest and making me want to read more about them. Wild Child - A Soul Sister Novel - Audrey Carlan 1 star I couldn't finish this one. I felt it was poorly-written and conceived, not to mention a romance between an FBI agent and a victim of an ongoing investigation was absolutely unprofessional. There were trite statements, grammatical errors (“I'd have it no other way.”), grammatical errors (“Her and Rory will be here this evening.”), unimaginative phrasing (“My sister smiled softly, her entire face softening at the sign of my savior.”), and plot points that just didn't make sense. Why was Simone struggling to survive with multiple jobs while her "mama" said there was plenty of room for her to stay there and her sister was a state senator? Meanwhile, she and Jonah act like love-struck teens. The whole thing was just ridiculous. 7-10-2021 Dare to Resist - Dare Nation Novel #1 - Carly Phillips 1 star Sorry, I got about one page into this before I gave up in disgust. It felt like reading from the POV of a serial sexual harasser and I had no interest in that. Yuck. Love on a Summer Night - Zoe York 5 stars I read this book a few years ago and loved it, as I have loved every book from Zoe York. This anthology is worth it, just for this book. 7-11-2021 Every Sweet Regret - Lexi Ryan 5 stars I absolutely loved this story of Stella and Kace. Reading it is effortless and the story is packed with well-developed and engaging characters. There are absolutely no loose ends when you reach the end of this one because Lexi Ryan addresses every relationship and how it affects Stella and Kace. The plot is long and involved and the pacing is perfect. There is one particular character who struck me as especially funny and the definition of a “character.” Smithy is a good-natured bartender/owner who seems clueless, but actually is very observant. He will joke about anything and is happy to make a spectacle of himself. During a party, Kace says, “My attention is pulled off Dean when I spot Smithy sauntering across the yard, sucking on a Popsicle in the most lascivious way. I blink, and he winks at me. Because that’s who Smithy is.” There’s a wonderful description of heartache that differs from the usual: “My internal organs feel like they’re rearranging themselves. My stomach is where my lungs should be, and my lungs are all twisted up with the shattered bits of my heart that have been festering low in my stomach.” Truly, I think this anthology is worth the price for the book alone and I will be looking for more from Lexi Ryan. 7-12-2021 Mr. Dirty - Nana Malone 4 stars This book was enjoyable, but I hate romances that base the conflict on an easily explained misunderstanding. It was obvious that Nathan and Sophie were going to fall in love, and their friends could see it pretty clearly too. Still, Sophie allows a misunderstanding to drive her away from him, and her best friend advises her, multiple times, that the best way to get over a guy is to get under another one. Even though Sophie insists she doesn’t want to do that, Gemma thinks she knows better so she calls another guy who has expressed interest in Sophie, forcing her to meet him. As the saying goes, “With friends like these, who needs enemies?” Meanwhile, Sophie refuses to talk to Nathan even though he repeatedly tries to explain to her what happened. Gemma makes some passing comment that doesn’t make sense about Sophie’s father, and in the midst of her angst over losing Nathan, she runs into him, and this man who has had little to do with her life suddenly offers her the wisdom she has needed to get past her issues with Nathan. C’mon. I liked much of the book, but parts of it were just silly and annoying. July 12, 2021
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September 2022
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