All Fired Up by Dylan Newton
Contemporary Romance
May 17, 2022, by Forever
ARC

Although it’s not indicated on Goodreads or Amazon, this is actually a follow-up to this author’s previous release, How Sweet It Is. If you’re interested you can check out my review here.

All Fired Up features Imani Lewis, best friend to Kate and publicist to Drake Matthews from the first book, and Zander Matthews, Drake’s younger brother. The two hooked up at Kate and Drake’s wedding and then haven’t really seen or talked since. Zander would like to rekindle their passion, but Imani has too much going on and doesn’t really think Zander’s laid back attitude toward life will mesh well with her no-nonsense, super scheduled, jump on top of that right now personality. But they keep getting thrown together and the chemistry is almost too much for them to ignore.

This was a cute book, full of physical humor and wacky situations… kind of like How Sweet It Is. I would also say that it is a little more serious than its predecessor. There is a lot of trauma in both the backstories of the main characters. The beginning sparked my interest right away and there were some amusing moments, but for some reason, I didn’t feel like it had the spark of the first book. It could be that the heaviness of the backstories diluted some of the humor, at least for me. There was chemistry between the main characters and I enjoyed the mix of their personalities.

The ending and HEA were sweet and put a smile on my face. I am looking forward to the last Matthews brother’s book.

Grade- C+

Amazon * Goodreads

A Deal with the Devil by Elizabeth O’Roark
Contemporary Romance
August 10, 2021- Self Published
Kindle Unlimited

I read Devil and the Deep Blue Sea last month and LOVED it. So of course, I went back and read the first book in the series, A Deal with the Devil, featuring British plastic surgeon Hayes Flynn and his temporary assistant, aspiring romance author Tali Bell.

When I tell you I loved these two… gah. The hate banter is A++ and despite her deep disgust at his ‘love ’em and then have your assistant get rid of ’em’ lifestyle, Tali can’t help but be kind of attracted to the surgeon to the stars. He’s all brooding and cold and has zero life outside of his drinking and debauching. He lives to make money. And that’s about it.

Tali on the other hand is in debt up to her eyeballs, which is the only reason she took this job, and seems to be the sole responsible person in her family. An alcoholic mother, a sister in a care facility, and a book that needs to be turned in soon or else she’ll have to pay back the advance from her publisher. Add in a cranky boss and her life is one big mess.

These two are like oil and water, BUT THEY WORK SO WELL. Like I mentioned above, the banter is superb, and when you add in the slow burn romance this story just worked for me on every level. I’m not always on the enemies to lovers bandwagon, especially if the main characters are super mean to each other… which is why I was so happy that the verbal sparring was more playful than truly awful.

So far I’ve read two books by this author and have loved them both. I am SO excited for the release of the third book the Devil series. The Devil You Know comes out June 23rd and you can bet I will be reading it on release day.

Grade-A

Amazon * Goodreads