The Princess and the Player ARC Review

 Lately I've been really into romance and The Princess and the Player is not an exception. This book is one that's part of a "series", but can be read as a standalone. Now, I haven't read the first one and that didn't affect my reading of this book at all. 

Francesca and Tuck have a Cinderella-ish night. The only rule is that this is a one time thing between strangers. The problem is that Francesca has figured out who Tuck is. She could ignore him and keep on as she always has if not for one little thing...She's pregnant. 

I loved this novel. Its got drama, sports, humor, romance. It's got it all. Not only that but I enjoyed the mix of romance tropes in this one. Since they can be read as standalones, I now want to circle back to the first book and see if it stands up as well. 

Overall, a fun and easy read. I would definitely recommend it to any romance reader. 

Everything Must Go - ARC Review

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me access to this eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Everything Must Go

by: Camille Pagan

My Rating: 3.75 Stars/Would Recommend

Released: April 26, 2022
Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Everything Must Go follows Laine. She's unhappy in her marriage because one thing she wants more than anything is a child, but her husband, Josh, continually says he "isn't ready". Just after dropping the bomb that she wants a divorce, Laine gets a call from her sisters asking her to come back to New York because their mom isn't doing well.  While in New York, Laine runs into her old friend Ben, which brings up old trauma and feelings.

This story started super slow for me. Though, I will say that may be just me because contemporary fiction is not my genre of choice. However, once I got into it, I really did enjoy the storyline. Laine has to make many decisions and she doesn't always know the right one to make. She's flawed, just like each one of us. 

3.75/5 stars - would recommend

Matchmaking A Billionaire - ARC Review

Special shout out to the authors, A.R. Casella and Denise Grover Swank, for allowing me on their review team and giving me access to this eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Matchmaking a Billionaire

by: A.R. Casella & Denise Grover Swank
(Angela Denise)

My Rating: 4.5 Stars/Would Recommend

Released: April 28, 2022
Genre: Romance

At this point, I will read literally anything A.R. Casella and Denise Grover Swank, now collectively known as Angela Denise, write together. They could continue writing stories for every little side character and I would still read them because they are wonderful!

In Matchmaking a Billionaire, we meet Bryn, Holly's sister (remember Holly?) She's still in Highland Hills trying to make her grandmother's matchmaking business work because let's face it, they are floundering.

When Rory hears about an idea that Bryn and Holly had for an app, he's intrigued and he's the kind of business guy who could help out. There's just one catch -- Nana Mayberry won't let him help unless they get to matchmake him. And it just so happens Bryn is single too. We can all see where this is going, but isn't it the perfect premise?!

I'm excited to see where this new series takes us. 

 

Blind Bake - ARC Review

Special shout out to the author, Denise Grover Swank, for allowing me on her review team and giving me access to this eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Blind Bake

by: Denise Grover Swank

My Rating: 4.75 Stars/Would Recommend

Released: February 22, 2022
Genre: Mystery (some comedy and some romance)

I loved the beginning of this new series by Denise Grover Swank! If you've read any of her backlist, this series gives me some Rose Gardner/Summer Butler vibes, while also being its own story. There was a bit of romance, but the mystery was the main part. I was absolutely amazed by the way the author was able to take so many small details and weave them together so expertly so that the answer to the mystery makes perfect sense, even though the evidence is leading you in a million different directions the entire time. I'm very excited for the second book (and the rest of course)!

 

Food Triggers - ARC Review

Shout out to NetGalley for my free eARC in exchange for my honest opinions. All opinions belong to me.

Food Triggers

by: Amber Lia

My Rating: 3 Stars/Would Recommend to a small group of people

Released: January 4, 2022
Genre: Non-fiction, Christian, Self-Help

Food Triggers was a non-fiction, Christian, self-help type book for people who struggle with food. The author combines personal experience with stories from the Bible and prayer. It's meant to be read as a chapter a day, devotional type book. I did really like a lot of what the author was saying and I wish I had read this at a different time in my life (being pregnant, I couldn't really do much with some of the advice she was giving lol) because I do think that it could be helpful with my struggles that I've had with food. I would recommend this book, but only to a select group of people (those struggling with food/eating disorders and Christians). 

February Wrap-Up

Um...well, sorry it's been 6 months since our last wrap-up post! HAHA. Here's a look at books we loved, books we didn't love, and books we DNF'd during the month of February.

Jayme's Reads (9):

What I Rated Them:
This Close to Okay ☕☕☕☕
Queen of Babble ☕.5
Solutions and other Problems ☕☕☕☕.75
Party of Two ☕☕☕☕
Hello Girls ☕☕☕☕.75
Fix You ☕☕☕☕.75
Soulmate Equation ☕☕☕☕.5
While We Were Dating ☕☕☕☕.5
Malibu Rising ☕☕☕☕.75

Favorite Read:
Hello Girls

Least Favorite Read:
Queen of Babble

DNF?
You'll Be the Death of Me
Bridget Jones' Diary

Rolling into March:
Coronavirus & Christ
Food Triggers
Rock, Paper, Scissors
Redirect
Blind Bake

Reminders of Him - Five Star Review

 Reminders of Him

by: Colleen Hoover

FIVE STARS!!

Released: January 18, 2022
Genre: Romance +

If you didn't already know by now, now you know - Colleen Hoover is an absolute auto-buy author for me. The moment I hear about her releasing a book, it's pre-ordered. However, this may be one of my absolute favorites of hers.

This book was SO MUCH MORE than just a romance. I laughed. I cried! Heck, a couple times I had to just full on shut the book and take a deep breath. I literally loved every single piece of this book and I know I'll be hungover for a very long time! Colleen brought all of the real, raw personality traits to her characters in this book (which she's known for - don't get me wrong) and the way that it is tied together through her dual narrative was simply a work of art.

RUN, don't walk....to pick up this book. Seriously, it makes you look at so many things in a different way and it might just make you a better human being. (Also, isn't the cover art lovely?)

As Good As Dead - Five Star Review

 As Good as Dead

by: Holly Jackson

FIVE STARS!

Released: September 28, 2021
Genre: YA Mystery

I've read along to this entire trilogy (A Good Girl's Guide to Murder) as it came out and honestly had almost forgotten about it until I saw that As Good As Dead was coming out and it would be the final one. Again, we follow Pip as she continues on with her podcast, exactly where it left off. Only this time, the danger seems to be even closer. I absolutely loved this series and this finale did not disappoint in the slightest! This book kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time, waiting to see what was going to happen next. Although most times, when I see an ending like the one this had, I roll my eyes and think about how cliche it is, for this book it 100% worked and I found it to be the perfect ending to a great series. 

Fix You - ARC Review

 Huge shout out to the author and Book Sirens for my free eARC in exchange for my honest opinions. All opinions belong to me.

Fix You

by: J.C. Doan

My Rating: 4.75 Stars/Would Recommend

Released: February 11, 2022
Genre: Unknown (It was way too hard to pinpoint this one!)

Fix You was my first introduction to this author and I was not disappointed! It took a few chapters to get invested in the story because, at least for me, it was hard to keep the people straight in the beginning. But once the characters were off on their own, I couldn't put the book down! It's so hard to categorize this book though. There's definitely some romantic type feelings going on, but it's definitely not a romance. Maybe just contemporary? It's for sure a good coming of age type story, though I won't lie I was a little shocked that it was being marketed towards teens. There's quite a few darker moments with a large variety of content warnings, so beware. What really god me is the ending. It was such a random cliffhanger, so I'm really hoping it ends how it does because it's leading us into a sequel. Overall, I really enjoyed this book!

Content Warnings: drugs, self injury, suicidal attempts/ideation, sexual assault, domestic violence, homelessness, etc.

Josh and Gemma Make a Baby - ARC Review

Shout out to NetGalley for my free eARC in exchange for my honest opinions. All opinions belong to me.

Josh and Gemma Make a Baby

by: Sarah Ready

My Rating: 4.25 Stars/Would Recommend

Released: January 25, 2022
Genre: Romance (Trope: Friends to Lovers)

This was a super cute story about main character, Gemma, and her quest to have a baby - even if that means doing it alone! When he asks family friend, Josh, to be a donor to help her get pregnant, she is stunned when he actually says yes. Through her deepening friendship with Josh and her new friendships with other women in the support group she's joined, Gemma learns so much about having a baby, loving herself, and loving others. There was awesome character development throughout this novel. It was definitely relatable and it handled sensitive topics, such as infertility and child loss, very gently to try to avoid being triggering. Y'all, I don't know if it was my pregnancy hormones or not, but I for sure cried (happy tears) at this book!

Content Warnings: infertility, miscarriage, IVF, child loss

Matchmaking Mischief

Huge thank you to the authors and Laughing Heart Press for the free eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

Amazon

Genre? Romance

Series or Standalone? #4 in the Bad Luck Club series

Backlist? No. Published Today! (January 6, 2022)

New to me Author? Absolutely not.

What did I think?

Matchmaking Mischief is the 4th book of the Bad Luck series by these amazing authors. To begin, I absolutely loved the meet-cute that led to Willow and Alex. I can just imagine how annoying they each thought the other was! Though of course, I knew where the two of them were headed and I was completely ready for the journey we would have to take to get there.

This book was one of those where, as much as you love the main characters, the minor background characters are almost just as amazing. I could not stop laughing at all of the poor choices some of them were making!

One thing I really love about this series is that you know there's going to be a Happily Ever After, but it never feels forced or cheesy. The entire time we went from strangers to enemies to friends to lovers, I just got warm feelings as we watched our characters fall more and more in love.

This series is completely worth trying out and they're all quick reads so start at the beginning and go catch up!