Happy Friday!

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic week, and found some great new reads!

I'm still in my book rut and I can't really get into any new books at the moment, so I've been going back to old favourites, namely books by Teresa Medeiros, and rediscovered some fantastic gems. Honestly, if you haven't read her books yet, you NEED too. She was one of the first romance authors I discovered, and her books made me believe in love. If you need something that inspires you, and leaves you in nothing but happiness, honestly, pick up her books.

But, to what you've seen this week! I read an excerpt from Helena Hunting's Meet Cute back in December, and had to read the full book based on that, and came out with very mixed emotions. While I absolutely loved the book, I'll confess that tears were shed as the plot of this story had some tragic undertones that did bring down the mood. While an honestly fantastic, well-written read, I just know that I did struggle with those themes. There's also Sabrina Jeffries first in her School for Heiresses series, Never Seduce A Scoundrel, which was a great historical read. Click on the book covers below to be taken to the reviews.

                           

As mentioned early in the week, unfortunately I did flare up on old writing injury in my left hand, causing some amount of pain when typing so posts have been a little bit shorter from me this week, but hopefully with time to rest, it should be back to normal soon. On the other hand though (ha), I have spent some great time reading, which was greatly appreciated.

As we're coming up to the weekend and I think we all need some cheering up, all printables in the store are now on sale for 50% off, including the reading tracker! Pick up yours by clicking the picture below.

                           
I hope you all have a fantastic weekend, and looking forward to hearing what you're reading!

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(ARC) Meet Cute - Helena Hunting

Kailyn Flowers was always calm, rational, and controlled-until she ended up sprawled all over Daxton Hughes, the former actor she totally crushed on as a teenager. Then she did the unthinkable: She became a mortifying fangirl in five seconds flat, which may or may not have included professing her undying love. And oddly, he didn’t run away. In fact, their meet cute led to a friendship she never saw coming. Of course, she never saw his betrayal coming, either…

Now Dax needs her help. As guardian to his thirteen-year-old sister, he’s in way over his head. And though Kailyn hasn’t forgiven Dax, she isn’t heartless enough to make him fend for himself, either. Soon their friendly meetings turn into flirty dinner dates, and Kailyn can feel their chemistry is as explosive as ever. But how can she possibly let down her guard again to a guy who has heartbreak written all over him?

While this book has already been published, I was fortunate enough to receive an extended free preview, and I can definitely say I'll be purchasing the full version. Having never read anything by Ms. Hunting, I was drawn in by a great blurb and front cover, and was instantly hooked.

While the story should always be the main feature of any novel, there are also factors that affect your enjoyment of the book, with one of the biggest being formatting. Formatting can make or break a novel, affecting the flow and reader's enjoyment. The formatting of this ebook was smooth and a fantastic flow, causing me to read all of it in one sitting. As soon as I was finished the book, I searched for it on scribd to continue, and while unfortunately not available, I will be searching for it nearby.

To the story itself, I instantly was drawn to both the hero and heroine, both written in an engaging and human way. Without giving too much away, I was slightly discouraged by the continued meet-cute with death bringing our leads together, which seems to be quite common across the romance theme, and something not entirely necessary to bring our leads together. However, for the sake of this plot line, it was needed. 

In the short 40 page preview I was given, there was comedy, romance, and drama and I simply can't wait to read more. 

Rating: 4/5

Click here to purchase from Amazon.

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(ARC) Up Close & Personal - Kathryn Freeman

British actor Zac Edwards is the latest heartthrob to hit the red carpets. Hot, talented and rich, he sends women wild…all except one.

Close protection officer Kat Parker hasn’t got time to play celebrity games.  She has one job: to protect Zac from the stalker that seems to be dogging his every move.

Zac might get her hot under her very starched collar, but Kat’s a professional – and sleeping with Zac is no way part of her remit…

I was lucky enough to receive an Advanced Reading Copy (ARC) of this novel, with thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK. Scheduled for release on 12 June 2020, watch for it coming to a bookstore near you soon!

If you read my last review, I laid out two tests that a book has to pass - does the cover appeal, and does the inside live up to the cover? I've added one more with this novel - is it formatted correctly? Test one - I like the cover, it's appealing, cute, and sets me in mind for a light-hearted novel with a generally used trope being gender-swapped, which is always interesting to read.

Test two - does the inside live up to the cover? I'm going to say not quite on this one - but not in a bad way, just, not what I was expecting. The categories for this novel are General Fiction (Adult), and Romance. Reading the blurb and seeing the cover, I would have expected this to be mainly romance, with a bit of mystery thrown in. However, I'll confess I couldn't read this late at night because I was getting so wound up with the suspense and mystery, and I honestly found it a bit spooky. That could be because I'm a gigantic fraidy-cat, I'll own up to that, but this book was suspenseful. Yes, there was romance added in, but rather than it being a usual 80% romance, 20% suspense (or something close to that) split, I found it was more 50-50, and as mentioned, I had a hard time reading this late at night as it was making me slightly unnerved.

Test three - unfortunately this book had a few formatting errors in a few chapters that were quite noticeable and quite detracting. I'm sure this will be corrected for the final release, but unfortunately it did affect the flow in those chapters and made it difficult to keep track of what was going on, and keep absorbed in the novel.

Our characters are both quite likeable people, and both have emotional baggage that they bring to this relationship, bringing interesting, and sad, twists and turns. It was a great plot, cleverly done, and the characters were flawed, adding a great sense of realism to the novel. As mentioned above, I would note this as a 50-50 suspense/mystery/romance (although again, please note that I am a self-confessed fraidy-cat), but still a great and interesting read.

Rating: 3.5/5

Click here to purchase from Amazon (available 12th June 2020).

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