Romance Recomendations

Hello, so I haven't been on here for a good long while, but it is currently valentines day as I write this and I looked at my bookshelf and for the first time in a while I felt the urge to blog, I will be posting a post about why I've been M.I.A soon, but for now enjoy this post and I will be sticking to a schedule hopefully that pushes me to read at least one book a week. 

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So here are my top 5 favourite Romance Books/Authors ….

Abbi Glines 

If you've followed me for a while this won't be a surprise, Glines is on my must read list, even when I'm in a reading slump I still manage to read those books. 

Her characters never fail to entertain and it's hard not to fall in love with every single one of them. 

Where Rainbows End/Love Rosie - Cecelia Ahern

Where Rainbows End is the copy I have but it's now called Love Rosie, and I read it quite a few years ago, but to this day it still sticks in my mind as one of the best love stories I have ever read.

Kat French

I found Kat's books by accident in my supermarket, but now she is one of my favourite romance Authors, her books are so light and funny, they never fail to put me in a good mood. 

Bella Andre

I love a good saga, any series that follows a family or different characters in the same circle are always some of my favourites to read and we are literally on the third section of this family and I can't wait for more. 

Morgan Matson 

This is a YA Author but like Kat French, she manages to make the story light and funny, with a hint of seriousness as well, I love every book by this author but if I had to choose my favourite would have to be The Unexpected Everything. 

Here are some honourable mentions ….

• To all the boys I've loved before - Jenny Han
• J Lynn 
• Geek Girl - Holly Smale
• Anna and the French Kiss - Stephanie Perkins 
• How to Love - Katie Cotugno 

So the Schedule for uploading will be Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and I really am planning to stick to it this time. 

Until Next Time 

Happy Reading

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Breathless In Love - Bella Andre & Jennifer Skully

Title - Breathless in Love
Author - Bella Andre & Jennifer Skully
Series - The Maverick Billionaires Series #1
ISBN - 9781938127977
Genre - Romance - Contemporary
My Copy - Purchased
Format - Kindle
Where You Can Find It - Goodreads - Barnes & Noble - Amazon UK - Amazon US

Will Franconi has a dark past that he’s kept a closely guarded secret―very few people have ever heard his real story and he plans to keep it that way. After surviving a hellish childhood, he’s now living the dream life where everything he touches turns to gold. But something’s missing. He doesn’t quite know what until a simple letter from a teenage boy brings Harper Newman into his life. A woman who just might fill up the empty places inside him…if only he could ever be worthy of her love.

When a man has more money than he could possibly spend in five lifetimes, Harper has to ask herself what Will Franconi could possibly want from a woman like her? She’s learned the hard way that rich men always get what they want no matter the cost. If it was just herself she had to worry about, Harper would manage, but she’s guardian to her younger brother who depends on her for everything. After nearly losing his life in a car crash, she’s vowed never to let anyone hurt him ever again.

Still, sometimes Harper can’t help but long to change her story from one of an always-cautious woman to an adventurous tale of a heroine who’s wild and free…especially when Will’s kisses and caresses make her utterly breathless. And as he begins to reveal his story to her, she discovers that he’s so much more than just another wealthy, privileged man. He’s kind and giving, and he fills up all the spaces inside of her heart that have been empty for so long. Together, can they rewrite their stories into a happily-ever-after that neither of them had previously thought was possible? 

First let me start by saying Bella Andre is one of my favourite romance authors and all her series are sort of connected her characters pop up in each of her series, and that is an aspect i love, but i was hesitant to start this series as i have found with a lot of other authors like Andre that each series gets repetitive but i have found this is not the case with Andre's series. 

I didn't know much about this book going in, and i am glad about that, i love going into these sort of books 'blind' it made me fall in love with the story as i was reading it. 

The story is much like every other romance, boy meets girl, they fall in love, boy does something they brake up and then get back together. That isn't a spoiler it is literally what happens in 95% of romance books. On the other hand i loved the twist of her caring for her younger brother as a carer for a family member myself i can fully relate to her on that aspect. The main reason i gave it four stars and not five was purely because of the format that is like every other Romance book.

Harper is such a strong female lead and that is something that i have gotten used to while reading Andre's books, but Harper seems stronger than most and she was the best part of this book. Will was also a big plus as well. Will's interactions with Harper's brother really shine in this book and those were some of the scenes that shone the most and made my heart melt.

I cannot wait to read the rest of this series the Maverick Boys had me captivated.

Until Next Time

Happy Reading

Boy's South of The Mason Dixon - Abbi Glines

Title - Boy's South of The Mason Dixon
Author - Abbi Glines
Series - South of The Mason Dixon #1
ISBN - 9781370472123
Genre - New Adult -- Romance
My Copy - Purchased // Borrowed
Format - Kindle // Scribid
Where You Can Find It - Goodreads - Barnes & Noble - Indigo - Amazon UK - Amazon US

The only thing hotter than the weather South of the Mason Dixon line are the boys. Worn, faded blue jeans, slow Southern drawls, and those naughty moments in the back of pickup trucks a girl never forgets. 

Welcome to the world of the Sutton boys. 

Five brothers who fight, party, drink a little too much, but more importantly, they love their momma. Nothing can tear them apart… until the girl next door wins more than one of their hearts. 

First things first, it took me a long time to read this book. Not because i didn't want to read it but Kindle was killing me and it only had the first two chapters and even now if i download it, it only has the first two chapters so i found it on Scribid and signed up and read the book there. 

I am honestly not too sure on this book, i normally love every book i have read by Glines but i just couldn't connect to this one. I don't know if its because i personally found it similar to The Vincent Boys by Glines. Don't get me wrong i enjoyed it but i am not eagerly anticipating the next one like i do with her other series. 

i found Dixie to be a bit boring compared to other characters, and i don't like feeling that about the main female character in a book. So that marked this book down quite a bit and to me some of it seemed rushed as well, like after the huge secret came out everything after that seemed to go in a blink of an eye. The Sutton boys were Ok, but again i felt like she has similar characters who are more developed and i didn't connect with any of them. 

All in all, it was enjoyable but not something i would pick up again, and i am still undecided if i will continue with this series. 

Until Next Time

Happy Reading

Salvged - Jay Crownover

Title - Salvaged
Author - Jay Crownover
Series - Saint's of Denver #4
Genre - New Adult -- Romance
My Copy - Purchased
Format - Kindle
Where You Can Find It - Goodreads - Waterstones - Barnes & Noble - Indigo - Book Depository - Amazon UK - Amazon US

Hudson Wheeler is a nice guy. Everyone knows it, including his fiancée who left him with a canceled wedding and a baby on the way. He’s tired of finishing last and is ready to start living in the moment with nights soaked in whiskey, fast cars, and even faster girls. He’s set to start living on the edge, but when he meets Poppy Cruz, her sad eyes in the most gorgeous face he’s ever seen hook him in right away. Wheeler can see Poppy’s pain and all he wants to do is take care of her and make her smile, whatever it takes. 

Poppy can’t remember a time when she didn’t see strangers as the enemy. After a lifetime of being hurt from the men who swore to protect her, Poppy’s determined to keep herself safe by keeping everyone else at arm’s length. Wheeler’s sexy grin and rough hands from hours restoring classic cars shouldn’t captivate her, but every time she’s with him, she can’t help being pulled closer to him. Though she’s terrified to trust again, Poppy soon realizes it might hurt even more to shut Wheeler out—and the intense feelings pulsing through her are making it near impossible to resist him. 

The only thing Poppy is sure of is that her heart is in need of some serious repair, and the more time she spends with Wheeler, the more she’s convinced he’s the only man with the tools to fix it.

I like many readers of this series have been waiting for Poppy's story since she was first introduced and watching her grow in the background of each subsequent book. And we met Wheeler a few of the books as well, it was a fitting tribute to two characters who have been handed the roughest deal in the series. 

As i said Poppy grows so much and if you read the Marked Men series then you will feel so proud from seeing where she comes from to this book, she is an underdog and we British love an underdog. Wheeler is a good character he is well written and he feels so real, like everybody knows a Wheeler in there life in some shape or form and he is a good guy and for once the good guy didn't finish last.

The story was different, it was more about healing and learning to love again, rather than blinding passion. So on that note it was like a breath of fresh air. I loved the innocence around their relationship and the way it progressed it was so natural and it didn't feel forced.

I don't think there are more to this series, forgive me if i am wrong but the ending felt like the ending to a series and there were no set up for other characters that i could plainly see. I will be very sad if there is none but i will forever hold this series and the Marked Men series in my heart as some of my favourites. 

Until Next Time

Happy Reading

Always and Forever - Sian O'Gorman

Title - Always and Forever

Author - Sian O'Gorman

Genre - Adult > Romance

Format - Kindle

My Copy - E-Arc Netgalley

Where You Can Find It - Goodreads - Barnes & Noble - Indigo - Amazon UK - Amazon US

How can you find yourself again, when you can’t face what you’ve lost?

Joanna Woulfe is looking to get her life back on track after her husband John leaves their family home. Once a high-flying PR Director, Jo now looks after her son Harry and seeks support only from her mother Marietta and her best friend Nicole. But Nicole’s own marriage is facing its greatest ever crisis, and Marietta, too, is distracted by the reappearance of an old flame, ex-Showband-singer and lothario Patrick Realta.

Soon Jo enrols with a colourful local amateur dramatics group and begins a flirtation with the handsome young Ronan Forest. But is she really ready to move on from her old life – and from her years of marriage to John? And what was it that happened three years ago that sent the couple into free-fall?

Before long Jo will realise that is only by looking back that she will ever truly be able to move forward...

The first thing that drew me in was the cover, i was scrolling through Netgalley and found this then i read the synopsis and it drew me in even further. I have been in a reading slump for well over a year now and i am very late getting this review up. 

Always and Forever was a wonderful feel good, bittersweet novel and one i fell very deeply in love with. It reminded me of Cecilia Ahern's novels and so i will say if you love her books you will most certainly love this one as well. 

The main character Jo went on such a journey throughout this book and you feel yourself rooting for her because she is one of those underdog characters, one that every reader seems to love. 

I don't want to say too much about the love interest or interest's what ever way you want to put it because i feel that that would spoil a lot of the novel. and i don't want that because it was wonderful to read it without knowing what was going to happen, but i will say it is wonderfully written and dealt with in a excellent way. 

If you love chick lit, and romance i really suggest this book it is charming and a wonderful book to curl up with on a rainy Sunday afternoon, and i really want to read more from this author and i suspect you will too.

Until Next Time

Happy Reading

Riveted - Jay Crownover

Title - Riveted
Author - Jay Crownover
Series - Saints of Denver #3
ISBN - 9780062386014
Genre - Adult > Romance
My Copy - Purchased
Format - Kindle
Where You Can Find It - Goodreads - Waterstones - Barnes & Noble - Indigo - Book Depository - Amazon UK - Amazon US

Everyone else in Dixie Carmichael’s life has made falling in love look easy, and now she’s ready for her own chance at happy ever after. Which means no more pining for Dash Churchill, the moody, silent former soldier who she works with. She’s going hunting for Mr Right and a pesky little crush isn’t going to stop her…

Denver has always been just a pit stop for Church on his way home. It was supposed to be simple, uneventful, but nothing could have prepared him for the bubbly, bouncy Dixie, determined to break down his walls. Now he knows it’s time to get out of Denver, fast.

But while falling in love is easy, loving takes a whole lot more work… especially when Mr Right thinks he’s all wrong for you.

Riveted was an extremely quick read for me, i read it in a few hours and i could not put it down, Jay Crownover writes books and series that make you constantly want more.

I am going to start off by saying this was very different than most of the other books in the series because it wasn't set in Denver. We mainly see Mississippi but that isn't that bad. The consequence of leaving Denver means we don't see too much of the other characters we know and love but that is fine. Mainly because we get introduced to some new characters, Church's family and the people in his town. 

Like 80% of Crownover's books this has a suspenseful and a mystery element that was well written because it makes you think this is happening for a certain reason then it is something different. 

The Characters in Riveted are as usual phenomenally well written and they are deep the characters deal with grief on many levels and abandonment. Then they also deal with unrequited love, and the horrors of war. I don't want to say too much because i don't want to spoil this book, but if you have read any other of Crownover's books you know what to expect from her characters by now.

The story was beautiful and action packed something i am coming to associate with Crownover, and i loved every minute of it. 

Until Next Time

Happy Reading

Like A Memory - Abbi Glines Spoiler Free Review

Title - Like A Memory
Author - Abbi Glines
Series - Untitled #1
ISBN - 9780988301351
My Copy - Purchased
Format - Paperback
Genre - New Adult > Romance
Where You Can Find It - Goodreads - Amazon UK - Amazon US - Barnes & Noble - IBooks 

One memory. 

One special summer. 

The one thing Bliss had lost herself in when the fear and sickness were too much, moments never to be damaged by the harsh reality that followed… until now. 

Bliss York didn’t live a normal teenage life. She didn’t go to Friday night football games, walk the halls with her friends every day, go to her prom or even walk to receive her diploma. It had all been taken from her the fall that she was fifteen years old and she was given the diagnosis no one ever wants to hear. 

She had leukemia. 

Seven years after spending a summer with a girl who he knew would always be his first love and the one who got away, Nate Finlay returns to Sea Breeze to help his fiancé open her new boutique clothing store. When the new employee walks in Nate is taken back seven years to the girl he thought he’d love forever. The one who never answered his calls or returned his text. The one who shut him out completely with not even a goodbye and broke his heart. 

They’ve each become someone different. No longer the young teens with stars in their eyes. But does that matter when your heart still says that’s the one.

This was probably one of my most anticipated books of this year, i have been waiting for this book since i read the last two words of Until The End in November 2014, it was finally here and it didn't disappoint.

If you haven't read it yet i will not be spoiling you here i will wait a few weeks until i do a spoiler's review, but it would be difficult to talk about their parents and the people around them without spoiling some from the Rosemary Beach/Sea Breeze Series so fair warning if you haven't read those and intend to.

First off i want to go back to my theories post, from a few weeks ago, and for the most part i was right just for the wrong reasoning, i will get more into it in the spoiler review. 

Reading this book, as someone who has read and loved the Rosemary Beach and Sea Breeze series' it was like coming home. I feel even though it can be read without reading those series, but you aren't invested as much, you don't know the struggle Eva went through when her father was diagnosed. You don't know why Nate's grandpop would say 'when you meet a girl you still love when shes a woman then you don't give that up.' I feel like you don't get the entire story but at the same time the way it is written if you are a new reader to this world then you wont be confused because there are no secret jokes or anything like that. 

Bliss, was strong and that is one of the main reason i love Glines' books is that even though most of her characters go through the ringer but they always come out the other side stronger and i like that this book reflected that when Nate looked at her. 
Nate on the other hand was a lot like all the other men in Glines' series' he is afraid of love, even though he admits he loved Bliss when he was younger but tries to convince himself it was lust. We see Nate go through unimaginable pain and still he fights on. 

There were so many characters in this series i cannot talk about them all, but the ones to look out for in the future that i think are going to be so much fun are Micah, Jude, Saffron, Holland, Lila Kate, Larissa, Cruz York, Cruz Kerrington, Cord, And Clay. There were so many more and i want books for every one but i think the next book will wither be Lila Kate's or Cruz York's since they were both sort of set up in this one. 

The story, albeit short was packed full of goodness, there are some scenes that have been missed out that i would of liked to see but maybe we will get to see them from other characters POV's in the coming books.

Abbi Glines has done it again this is a truly wonderful book and it was heartbreaking and beautiful and funny all rolled into one beautiful package. I am truly grateful that this series exists.

Until Next Time

Happy Reading

Retreat - Jay Crownover

Title - Retreat
Author - Jay Crownover
Series - Getaway #1
ISBN - 9781540751300
Genre - Adult > Romance 
My Copy - Purchased
Format - Kindle
Where You Can Find It - Goodreads - Barnes & Noble - Indigo - Book Depository - Amazon UK - Amazon US

Every once in a while, you need to get away from it all.

I was a woman on the edge, shaken and shattered after a breakup that felt like it tore my entire world apart. 

My best friend, sick of watching me drown in misery and melancholy, harassed me until I agreed to go with her on a week-long wilderness retreat.

She promised days spent bonding and getting in touch with our inner bad-asses. 

It was supposed to be all about the two of us roughing it and making do with the bare minimum. She assured me we were going to be pushed to our limits in ways that were unimaginable. Neither one of us could have ever guessed just how right she was.

Nowhere in the glossy brochure did it say anything about the fact I was going to have to battle the insufferable but deliciously rugged and sexy trail guide instead of the elements. The brochure also forgot to mention the part that warned when you left civilisation behind, there was no place to pack your inhibitions and fears.

I was told that I would be facing a week where the only thing I should expect was the unexpected. However, no one mentioned that I was going to have to fight for my life…and my heart as soon as I ventured into the unknown. 

I was a pro at hiding from my feelings but when it came time to face a real threat, one that could change everything, I learned I was more of a no surrender, no retreat kind of girl.

Retreat is a standalone novel, the first in the Getaway series which centres on the hardheaded and brokenhearted Warner brothers and the women that dare to love them.

These boys are very good at putting the wild in wilderness.

I didn't know that this book had been released until January but when i found out about it, i brought it straight away. Jay Crownover is an auto-buy author for me and these books are always my guilty pleasure. 

I read this book straight through in a few hours and it was good, not the best books that she has written those go to her marked men and saints of Denver books. But they are enjoyable nevertheless. 

The characters were your typical run of the mill romance characters, but Cyrus and Leo were still perfect in the situation and i love me a cowboy even a 'fake' one. Leo was strong and perfect she was written in a way that most women can relate to. And Cyrus is pretty much every straight woman's fantasy man.

The story albeit a tad far fetched, was fun and fast to read. It didn't have slow points it was action and romance all the way through. A book that you can read when on a rainy Sunday afternoon and not feel that the day has been wasted. 

Towards the end it get very action packed and gets quite a bit emotional but please don't let that put you off when i say it has action in it, it is still predominately a romance novel. 

I highly recommend this book and all others by this author one of the greats when it comes to romance writing about strong female characters in romance and the men she writes are all dreamy and the kind of men dreams are made of.

Until Next Time

Happy Reading

Once She Dreamed Part One & Part 2 - Abbi Glines

Title - Once She Dreamed Part 1 & Part 2
Series - Once She Dreamed
Author - Abbi Glines
Genre - New Adult
My Copy - Purchased
Format - Kindle
Where You Can Find It - Part 1 - Goodreads - Amazon UK - Amazon US - Barnes & Noble 
Where You Can Find It - Part 2 -  Goodreads - Amazon UK - Amazon US  

Everyone in the small country town where Sammy Jo Knox had been born and raised, never left. They made their life there. Got married, had kids, lived in the same houses that were always there along the streets that never changed. The whole white picket fence and tree swing might look good on greeting cards but in real life it was boring, at least to Sammy Jo.

When Sammy Jo was a little girl she began dreaming of something bigger. Brighter. Something that wasn’t her town. She wanted to see the world and experience it all. Just how she was going to do that she had no idea. Because if her momma had her way, she’d marry one of the boys in town and be spitting out babies and going to church on Sunday with them all lined up in a row.

The day Hale Christopher Jude III walked into the bakery she worked at, she knew he was it. That part of life she was missing. He smelled of foreign places and exciting things. He represented all the bright lights she dreamed of and simply put, she hoped he was her way out of this place.

What Sammy Jo didn’t realise was things that appear perfect… aren’t. And chasing her dreams could lead to something very different.

OK, so to start this off i am going to say this is going to be a spoiler free review for both parts of this book, and that there will be a spoiler review in a couple of days. Because there is a huge spoiler i want to talk about but refuse to in this review. 

So on to the actual review, when i started reading this book i didn't get into it at all, it felt quite slow and i wasn't as invested in Sammy as i was in Glines' other character upon first reading them. Like i didn't get the instant connection i did with the others and i wasn't sure why. I think it was her character in the beginning she was very different than anything i had read from Abbi before and i was a bit put off. So i stopped reading and it wasn't until January of 2017 that i picked it back up and decided to push through and read and i am so glad that i did because the real action is in the second part the first is just a build up that needs to be there even if it is a little slow. 

So Characters, this is only going to be a brief part on the characters i will talk about more of them in the spoiler review, Sammy's character from the start to the end has the most development and it is good to watch because i think for some people she will be easily relatable, i didn't get it at first but i do now i understood her in a way that we both want to escape, she lives in a tiny town in Alabama and i live in a tiny village just inside of London and there are times i would take any offer just to leave. So that was one big aspect i think a lot of people could sympathise with Sammy Jo but at the same time from the outside we can see what a terrible idea it is for her to move all the way to New York with this guy she barely knows. 

The men in this story are just as hot, just as beautiful as in her other stories and i will be talking more about them in the spoiler review because once i start writing i may end up spoiling and i don't want to.

The story is a little far fetched, but then again from where i stand it is fiction, and i can give it some lenience. If it was a non fiction that is where i draw the line, but apart from being a little slow in the first part it really picks up in the second , The ending is again some thing i will talk about in the spoiler review but i will say it is an open ending so be warned about that. One final thing i will say is i highly recommend this series for people who are a fan of Rosemary beach because it has some people you may recognise. 😉😉

Until Next Time

Happy Reading