No Judgements by Meg Cabot

The storm of the century is about to hit Little Bridge Island, Florida—and it’s sending waves crashing through Sabrina “Bree” Beckham’s love life…

When a massive hurricane severs all power and cell service to Little Bridge Island—as well as its connection to the mainland—twenty-five-year-old Bree Beckham isn’t worried . . . at first. She’s already escaped one storm—her emotionally abusive ex—so a hurricane seems like it will be a piece of cake.

But animal-loving Bree does become alarmed when she realizes how many islanders have been cut off from their beloved pets. Now it’s up to her to save as many of Little Bridge’s cats and dogs as she can . . . but to do so, she’s going to need help—help she has no choice but to accept from her boss’s sexy nephew, Drew Hartwell, the Mermaid Café’s most notorious heartbreaker.

But when Bree starts falling for Drew, just as Little Bridge’s power is restored and her penitent ex shows up, she has to ask herself if her island fling was only a result of the stormy weather, or if it could last during clear skies too.

I’ve always been a huge fan of Meg Cabot. Starting with her Princess Diaries series back in 2002, I’ve read almost every single one of her books, leaving out the middle school books, and I would say hands down she is one of my favourite authors.

The Little Bridge Island Series starts off with a short story, ‘Bridal Boot Camp,’ and while a short story has limited time, the story was bland, not offering much for the reader to fall in love with the characters.

Unfortunately, No Judgements starts off exactly as the blurb lays out, and continues its short story pitfall, of simply seeming too easy. The characters are semi-likeable, but the romance seems too rush between the protagonists. While a great read for introducing us to Little Bridge Island, there’s nothing memorable about this series.

When Cabot refers to the ’emotionally abusive ex’ in the blurb, I steeled myself, for what ultimately seemed to be little resolution in the book, and retaliation with physical violence. She also introduces a myriad of backstory for the character that seem to be random notes, rather than key driving points of the story.

Overall, while I love Cabot and most of her books, unfortunately this one seemed to fall short. An interesting premise in a gorgeous setting, but the pace was too quickly set for our protagonists to reach their happy ending.

Rating: 3/5

Click here to purchase from Amazon.

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Battle of the Bulge (OHellNo 4) by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

MY NAME IS MITCH HOFER. I’m a world-famous swimmer from Australia, best known for three things: my gold medals, my looks, and filling out a swimsuit with my…eh-hem—bulky equipment. Let’s just say there’s a reason my nickname is “the Bulge.” But beyond the fame, sponsors, and glory, there’s more to me than people know, including one hell of a mess I’ve gotten mixed up in. Life-or-death stuff, so bring in the professionals. Just don’t give me a chick bodyguard. Especially a young hot one who distracts me at every turn and hates my guts…

  

MY NAME IS ABI CARTER, and I hate Mitch Hofer. Yeah, he might be the sexiest champion swimmer in the world, but I’d give this guy a gold medal for being a first-class jerk. Unfortunately, my boss has given me a choice—guard Mitch or get another job. And I really need the money. I can be professional, but if Mitch says “chicks can’t be bodyguards” one more time, I just might strangle him myself. Still, something about the way Mitch keeps looking at me makes me think there’s more to his story. It’s almost as if he’s trying to drive me away. But why?

I picked up the first in Ms. Pamfiloff's OHellNo series a few weeks ago when it was being offered free through Prime. It was interesting and kept my attention, but there were a few things that just didn't sit just quite right, so I didn't really want to continue. But, this one came to my attention, and as a former competitive swimmer/lifeguard/lifeguard trainer/basically a water creature and wishing I could be a mermaid, I couldn't ignore the opportunity of a romance novel with a competitive swimmer being our male lead, and I'm very glad I didn't.

Ms. Pamfiloff takes on the classic trope of a bodyguard romance, but puts it in reverse here, with our male lead being protected by our female lead, and not liking it one bit. While Mitch comes across as a less than stellar lead at first, we're quickly drawn into exactly why he's doing it, and he does actually become someone I'm cheering for. I would say that I'm not as much of a cheerleader for Abi, I can't quite pinpoint it, but I think she's so quickly flipping through judgements that it's somewhat hard to keep up with.

The plot line itself was fantastic, and I will confess, I was a little worried to turn off the lights last night (may have been a 2:05am finish), but still primarily focusing on the relationship between Abi and Mitch. The plot flows in tandem and slightly secondary to the character's relationship, which is the perfect blend in my opinion.

The romance scenes themselves were hot and steamy, and I'll be a little selfish here and say I wish there had been more of them and the book just a little longer so I could get more of their story (and those scenes, I can't deny it).

A definite steamy read with some of my favourite tropes flipped on their head, and a perfect summer read.

Rating: 4/5

Click here to purchase from Amazon.

Have you read this book yet? Drop a comment and let us know your thoughts!

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Love Me Like You Do by Aimee Brown

A runaway bride. A handsome stranger. Two pasts to put behind them.

Parker is ready to marry the man of her dreams. But he isn't ready to marry her. When she's dumped moments before walking down the aisle, she didn't expect to run into the arms of a handsome stranger. The southern drawl, the dreamy eyes, she can't fall for another man after being left at the altar – can she?

When Liam agreed to go on yet another blind date, he didn't expect his escape would lead him to the emergency room with a runaway bride. She might have just been left at the altar, but he's immediately drawn to her fiery spirit, kind heart and beautiful smile. Liam's got a whole host of problems and a past that's haunting him, now can't be the time to fall in love, but Parker might just be the one to break down his barriers and let him live a little – if she'll let him in.

Will these two strangers allow serendipity to force them together, or will their fears keep them apart?

Thanks to NetGalley and Aria I was lucky enough to receive an advanced reading copy for Aimee Brown's upcoming romance novel, Love Me Like You Do, scheduled for release 17th September.

I've never read anything by Ms. Brown before, but was instantly drawn in by the description and it did not disappoint. Going through our three tests:

Did the cover match up to the novel? It's a no for me, but not in a bad way. Looking at this cover, I'll admit, I was a bit dubious about reading this book. Don't get me wrong, the cover is a nice design and I do love the colors, but for me it felt a bit light for the subject matter and a bit more serious than what I hoped the book would be. For me, the book far exceeded the cover and I was very happily surprised.

Second, does the book live up to its description? Most definitely, yes.

Finally, how was the formatting? There were a few mistakes in wrong words, words pushed together, paragraph formatting slightly out, but I'm sure this will remain in the ARC and will be corrected for the final edition.

To the story itself, I was blown away. I always love to feel fully invested in the books I read and continue reading, and this book definitely checked those boxes. It is light-hearted, comedic, but with depth and it just kept me wanting to read. The plot itself covers a variety of topics, but does so in a seamless manner that doesn't keep you thinking, well hang on, what happened to that plotline? Everything ties in together beautifully and doesn't make you feel that something was just thrown in for extra dramatic effect. Everything that was put into the book had a purpose and enhanced the story, not detracted.

Our characters meet-cute was perfect, and I loved the premise of fate and chance taking part in this love story. The characters continue meeting without expectation, randomly bumping into each other and it suits the plot perfectly. Both our main characters were well-fleshed out with plotlines aside from their romance, and it was just simply beautiful.

Spoilers ahead.

I was a little surprised with the depth that Ms. Brown went into with Parker's Mother, and for some readers who are triggered by mentions of suicide, please read with caution. I felt that it was handled in a good manner, but, still a surprise.

Even with that, the book still managed to mostly light-hearted and a joy to read, and one that I was so pleasantly surprised to have. Overall, a fantastic book, one of the best I've read this year, and one that I'm very grateful to have had the opportunity to read.

Rating: 4/5

Click here to pre-purchase from Amazon, available 17th September.

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(ARC) All Stirred Up by Brianna Moore

Susan Napier's family once lived on the success of the high-end restaurants founded by her late grandfather. But bad luck and worse management has brought the business to the edge of financial ruin. Now it's up to Susan to save the last remaining restaurant: Elliot's, the flagship in Edinburgh.

But what awaits Susan in the charming city of Auld Reekie is more than she bargained for. Chris Baker, her grandfather's former protégé--and her ex-boyfriend--is also heading to the Scottish capital. After finding fame in New York as a chef and judge of a popular TV cooking competition, Chris is returning to his native Scotland to open his own restaurant. Although the storms have cleared after their intense and rocky breakup, Susan and Chris are re-drawn into each other's orbit--and their simmering attraction inevitably boils over.

As Chris's restaurant opens to great acclaim and Susan tries to haul Elliot's back from the brink, the future brims with new promise. But darkness looms as they find themselves in the crosshairs of a gossip blogger eager for a juicy story--and willing to do anything to get it. Can Susan and Chris reclaim their lost love, or will the tangled past ruin their last hope for happiness?

I was lucky enough to receive an advanced reading copy (ARC) of Brianna Moore's new novel, All Stirred Up, thanks to NetGalley and Alcove Press. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

With any ARC, I always go through three tests before fully going through the story itself:

1. Does the cover appeal? Fully yes. I'm really loving the new style of romance novel covers where you're not actually seeing a real person, but a caricature style (unfortunately as you can probably tell I'm not an art person, so excuse the ignorance for what the actual style is here). Either way, loved the cover!
2. Does the cover match up to the story? I'm a little mixed on this one. It did have key elements of the story, but I'll confess that the cover made me think of this story going in a different direction than it did.
3. Did the formatting work? Unfortunately there were some choppy errors here which made the book a little disjointed to read at times. Paragraphs were sometimes in the wrong place, words dropped down mid-sentence, words with no spaces. Having said that, once this is cleared up, the book flow will definitely improve.

Onto the story itself! Reading the description, I knew that we were heading into a romance story with a cooking element. But, I didn't find that this actually matched, and it actually felt more like a cooking/family-relationship story with a romance element. Don't get me wrong, this novel is very well-written, detailed, and intriguing. We're given a lot of information about the cooking scene in Edinburgh, the operation of a kitchen, and I'll admit it has given me an incentive to start cooking again.

We're given some insight into Susan's family and the legacy of her family's restaurant, combined with some of the disjointed family relationships. I found myself somewhat confused at times which character was actually which as there were so many different characters to keep track off. I would definitely say that Susan was our main character, but I wouldn't actually say the same of her love interest - Chris. We see a lot more of Susan's interactions with her family and her emotions than we see of Chris, and again, that's not a bad thing, it just doesn't fit the usual romance novel that I read.

I do feel that this was more of a general fiction novel with romance elements, which again, is well-written, just not fully falling into the romance genre. For most of the book, our lead characters are dating another person, leading to some confusion about who was actually going to end up together. The romance between Susan and Chris was discussed at various stages, but I didn't feel with enough conviction for me to want the two to end up together. Personally I wasn't that invested in Chris and hoping he'd get back together with Susan, but I was invested in Susan and getting her restaurant sorted!

Overall, I think this was a well-written novel, with many fascinating details about the cooking world and the Edinburgh scene, and one that I did thoroughly enjoy. I would say that this was more of a general fiction novel with a romance element, but nevertheless, a light-hearted, well written book.

Rating: 3/5

This book is scheduled for release 8th September, 2020.

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Royal Bastard Sneak Peek!

It's the first day of June! I've said this every month so far, but this year is definitely not what I thought it would be, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that. But, while there's so many uncertainties and unknowns, I know that for me, escaping the madness of all of that is more important for me than ever.

Be kind to yourself, be kind to others, and take time to do things that you enjoy. We're currently in a completely unexpected period in our lives where a lot of our normalities have changed and it's hard to accept. Take the time for yourself that you need to keep being you and be happy.

And to cheer us all up, there's some fantastic news from Avery Flynn for a sneak peek of her upcoming book, Royal Bastard, scheduled for release 8th June! Check it out here today.

What are you reading this month? Drop a comment and let us know!

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