Over the weekend I spent time doing two things. Neither of them was reading, sadly. I bedazzled a bra with fake rhinestones for my daughter’s mermaid costume. You guys...college and sorority halloween parties will be my death. My neck and shoulders are killing me still. But...the bra turned out spectacular even if I do say so myself. The second thing I did, that I couldn’t stop myself from doing once I began, was glomming The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix. That Continue Reading
Tori’s Tuesday Tinys
Fall by Kristen Callihan VIP#3 Contemporary Romance October 23, 2018 Plane Jane Books Fans have waited breathlessly for this installment in Callihan's steamy and emotionally deep VIP series. Rich in sensory detail and boldly unapologetic, in Fall, Callihan tackles the serious issues of mental health, self-harm, depression, and abuse with compassion and a heavy dose of common sense while building a romance that brims with laughter and heart. Jax aka John Blackwell, lead singer for the band Kill Continue Reading
Review: Fall by Kristen Callihan
This book was a reading week filled with books with heavier topics and I ended up writing omg reviews about both books I read Fall by Kristen Callihan This book is third in her VIP Series. The last one was published almost two years ago and while I read both previous books, I don’t remember a lot of the details. But I recall enjoying them and remembering Jax as the broody band member who had also previously attempted suicide. This book touches on Jax’s attempted suicide, although not in Continue Reading
Secrets of a (Sometimes) Sunny Girl by Karen Booth
I am a fan of Booth’s after having read her second-chance rock & roll book, Bring Me Back several years ago. I also belong to a Facebook group that she co-started called Seasoned Romance, focused on romances with older (40+) characters. All this to say I am a Booth fan and I was pretty excited to get this ARC. Second chance romance is one of my favorite tropes. I read this book knowing it is labeled Romance & Women’s Fiction and both are true. I love when authors, publishers, etc help Continue Reading
Helyce’s Thursday Thoughts
My slump has officially ended-for the time being anyway. I don’t think my review for Winter Cottage does the book justice--but I always struggle with reviewing books that I’ve really enjoyed. It’s so difficult NOT to say too much and give it all away. So I censor myself and feel like I’m not giving the story it’s true props! I think this story would make a fantastic movie for Hallmark or Lifetime. And, interesting piece of information--Mary Ellen Taylor is Mary Burton, which I didn’t learn Continue Reading
Kini’s Friday Kisses
This was a moderate reading week for me that had some meh reads. Steeped in Love by Julie Evelyn Joyce. This blurb makes it seem like this book will be a cutesy story as the heroine is back in the dating world. She read the tea leaves of potential mates and uses the findings as a reason to not date them. The hero is the writer in residence at the local coffee shop. They meet. Have great banter. He eavesdrops on her dates, then over time gets jealous and then finally asks her Continue Reading
Review: How She Likes it by Carla de Guzman
How She Likes it by Carla de Guzman Romance Contemporary 2018 Midnight Books Reviewed by Kini I picked this book up after seeing it teased on Twitter. Guzman is part of #romanceclass on Twitter and this was my first read by her. The heroine is an heiress and the hero is her assistant. I love when an author uses this trope and I was curious to see how the power dynamic would be portrayed. It was no squicky at all and worked well for me. Isabel is the CEO of a make-up company and in Continue Reading
What Mandi Has Been Reading
First, the good stuff. And oooooooh, have I fallen in love with a series. This has been out for years, and for all those years I've seen people rave about it on Twitter, and I had it sitting in my TBR. And now I've read book one, A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, and I'm halfway through book two, A Court of Mist and Fury, and I'm. In. Love. Book one starts maybe a tiny bit slow, and although I was ready to give it four solid star, when I hit the 70% mark (for those that have Continue Reading
Review: Saddle Up by A.M. Arthur
Saddle Up by A.M. Arthur (Clean Slate Ranch #3)Released: September 17, 2018M/M RomanceCarina Press Reviewed by Mandi Although there are some darker subject matters in this book, I still found it to be a very sweet, and feel good book. And with that being said, I also found it a little hard to get totally engaged - as everything was just too predictable...and well...a little too sweet. (Am I a jaded and bitter reader????) Miles is a sous chef with an obsessive, stalker ex-boyfriend. This Continue Reading
Helyce’s Thursday Thoughts
Kiss The Girl by Tara Sivec (Naughty Princess Club #3)Contemporary RomanceSeptember 4, 2018Swerve This series follows the lives of 3 women who meet each other at a party, find out they have much in common, form a strong bond of friendship and start a business together. In this third installment, we get Ariel and Eric’s story. We’ve watched them butt heads at every opportunity--their chemistry obvious to the reader--a weird kind of foreplay that never leads anywhere. Ariel is has been Continue Reading