You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

thischarmingreader's reviews
1458 reviews

August Lane

Regina Black

5.0

emotional inspiring medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

✨ARC Review✨

Is there much I love better than a mix of second chance, a mutual calling, and regret? Not really. And this beautifully written book had it all.

August Lane, daughter of *the* JoJo Lane, has been left in Arcadia, Arkansas. First by her mother. Then by Luke Randall. Her grandmother, Birdie, has recently died and August is at a crossroads. She’s serving tables at a diner and messily hooking up with men.

And then Luke is back in town to sing “Another Love Song” with JoJo at her Country Music Hall of Fame concert. The song he stole from her. The song that launched his career. The song she wrote for him.

I love dual timelines with second chance. I want to fall in love with them as they fall in love with each other and I did. I love them so much.

August and Luke as teenagers are dealing with so much even as they allow themselves to care for each other. The way the adult versions find their way back to each other is my favorite. They are not perfect, flawless people, but they’re loving and forgiving.

The way @reginablackwrites wove all these threads of past and present is masterful. I had mentioned in my stories that I was highlighting something on every other page and that stayed true to the end. What an incredible writer! I can’t wait to read The Art of Scandal too.

Highly recommended for lovers of second chances, good country music, and slow burn yearning. And I just found the playlist yesterday, so I’ll be enjoying that while I work today.

*Please read the author’s note or visit her website for content warnings.

I received this eARC via #netgalley and @grandcentralpub. All thoughts are mine alone.

Where You're Planted

Melanie Sweeney

4.0

emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

✨ARC Review✨

🌿 Ahhh! This was just what I needed. I’ve been reading so many good contemporary romances lately and it’s lighting me up. The real world is a mess and I’m craving these happily ever afters.

🌿 We begin with Tansy rescuing two birds from the library where she works DURING a hurricane. As she’s leaving, a man comes and scolds her, but also helps her get out of the parking lot. She goes home to her daughter and elderly neighbor and hours later, they need to be rescued. And lo and behold, the same scolding man from the library is in his boat rescuing people. She continues to be embarrassed about finding herself in situations where she needs rescuing.

🌿 Four months later: Tansy’s library is still out of commission, but instead of closing the branch, Tansy convinces the commissioner to find them another temporary location. And boy does he! Only in the botanic gardens where surly, scolding man works. His name is Jack, by the way.

🌿 Jack and Tansy are argumentative from the jump. Tansy still reeling from everything the hurricane took from her and her daughter and too proud to ask for help. Jack too cutoff from emotions due to his past. But do they simmer? Oh yeah. They simmer. Until their attraction boils over.

🌿 Tansy’s pride is almost too much to take sometimes. I get it to an extent, but sometimes you have to put that sh1t away for the benefit of your child. And speaking of her Briar: I adore Jack’s bonding with her. It made me a gelatinous gooey mess.

🌿 Highly recommended for lovers of nature, libraries, lumbersnacks, and found family!

He Falls First

Jill Shalvis

4.0

emotional funny inspiring medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

✨ ARC Review ✨

💫 And another delightfully lovely contemporary romance 🤩

💫 Penny is living with her grandmother and tween brother in a small California town. They’re barely scraping by on what she makes at her catering job. One of her assignments is catering for a construction company owned by Ryder Colburn. And one day he saves her life.

💫 Now they *see* each other. Penny doesn’t want to. She’s always made poor romantic choices and she’s sworn off doing it again. But every day Ryder shows up for her, her ramshackle house, her family. It’s hard to deny he might be the best thing to ever happen in her life. Ryder resists at first too. He’s filled with guilt for so many things beyond his control. He says he doesn’t have time to add love into his life. But love does what it wants, don’t it?

💫 Their undeniable pull to each other keeps creating space for them to know each other. They’re helpless to resist.

💫 Highly recommended for lovers of competent men, people healing together, and sassy birds!

Thank you to @hambright_pr and Jill Shalvis for the eARC. All thoughts are mine alone.

Friends to Lovers

Sally Blakely

4.0

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

✨ ARC Review ✨

I am loooving all these contemporary romances I’ve been consuming lately. Devouring actually. I could’ve read this one in one sitting too if I didn’t have to work. Oh wait. Jer says “we don’t got to, we get to.” Work, that is. He’s adorable.

Ok, back to Joni and Ren. First of all, does anyone see the name Ren and start singing “Footloose” in their head? Moving on.

Joni and Ren have been best friends since they were three. But something happened two and a half years ago. They haven’t spoken since. Now, Joni’s sister, Stevie, is getting married at their families’ shared oceanfront summer home. There’s no avoiding each other now. And they haven’t spoken to pretend they’re as close as ever. They didn’t tell their families they had a falling out. They didn’t want to squash the family dynamic.

This is told in dual timelines. We fall in love with them in the past and through Joni’s memories. And we fall in love with them as they reconnect in the present.

I don’t know that I have the words to describe what it was like living with them in the past and how that felt so real and special. And what it’s like while they’re thrown together over and over again during wedding week. Not just thrown though. They’re also magnets. Pulled together by their shared history and their hearts.

And @sherry_reads_books, it’s another spot-on title. Two in a row!

Highly recommended for lovers of slow burn romance, music, weddings, and close families. Also, knowing who your soulmate is for your entire life.

I received this eARC via #netgalley and @readmirabooks. All thoughts are mine alone.

Road Trip With a Rogue

Kate Bateman

5.0

adventurous funny fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I do so love Kate Bateman’s historical romances. This one is no exception.

Daisy is part of a three-woman private investigation team, King and Company. She’s been tasked with stopping an elopement. An heiress is on her way to Gretna Green with her love who is potentially a fortune hunter. She’s waylaid by Lucien Vaughan, Duke of Cranford, and the man she used to desire beyond measure. Until that fateful night five years ago when he taught her a lesson she’ll never forget.

Now she’s traveling with him as they try to catch up to the young lovers: talking, bantering, and sharing a room as well as the carriage. Lucien is everything we want in a historical romance MMC. He’s tall and dashing and flirtatious as all get-out. And Daisy is fierce, determined, and smart enough to know she’s being caught in Lucien’s web.

Their attraction is intense and undeniable. Years in the making. The steamy scene where he asks her how she can tell if a man loves her is going to be emblazoned in my soul forevermore.

Highly recommended for lovers of modern takes on historical fiction, women’s own agency, smart-ass dukes, and the women who love them.

Well, Actually

Mazey Eddings

5.0

funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

It’s hard to put into words how ‘splodey my heart was with this warm, hilarious book. My heart just kept filling with every insult, every endearment, every time Rylie knew exactly what Eva needed. And then it exploded. In a great way.

So, Eva is lonely in her tiny apartment and drinking deeply while doom scrolling. She comes to a screeching halt when she sees a guy she used to date explaining red flags in dating. Hold up. *This* guy thinks he can advise about dating when he was the literal worst. Not on Eva’s watch.

She stitches his video with her truth bombs and never expects what happens. Viral video. Boom. Her bosses at Sausage Talk, where she interviews D-list celebs while eating hot dogs, wants her to have a live conversation with Rylie.

This doesn’t go the way she thinks it will. He convinces her to go on several dates with him so he can make up for his past behavior. It’s all supposed to be for the exposure and a possible promotion. But I think you know things start to feel very real very quickly.

On the surface, Eva is a classic black cat, but dig deeper (as we do) and she’s a char-roasted marshmallow- only black and bitter on the outside, but warm and tender on the inside. That being said, her outward confidence, looks, and way with a stunning slight is bar none. She is, as Rylie says, brutal. And I wouldn’t want her any other way. Neither would Rylie.

I truly cannot express how much I love this book and this couple. Please please please read this book. You’ll be giggling and kicking your feet. And probably sweating because the heat is…so hot. Tell me more, Rylie.

Highly recommended for lovers of second chances (my personal favorite), sexy nerds, lethal femmes, and all the freaking banter you could want.

I received this eARC via #netgalley and @stmartinspress. All thoughts are mine alone.

A Forbidden Alchemy

Stacey McEwan

4.0

adventurous dark emotional funny medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

✨ Who doesn’t love a high stakes, full of political intrigue, love triangle- ish, magic-infused, Peaky Blinders-coded romantasy? Well, to my knowledge, there’s only this one and if you’ve read it, you no doubt loved it.

Nina Harrow and Patrick Colson first meet as children. They’ve been sent to Belevere City to see if they’re destined to be Artisans (the wielders of elemental magic) or Craftsmen (the laborers.) They discover that Artisans aren’t born as they’ve always been told, but chosen by the political leaders. And of course, poor kids from mining towns aren’t chosen often.

This sets these two on wildly different paths that converge years later: Nina who used her knowledge to become an Artisan and Patrick who used his knowledge to start a rebellion. He needs her help to bring his latest plan to fruition and she reluctantly agrees. Not that she has much of a choice. She’s basically a prisoner with some leniency.

She’s also stunned to see her fellow Artisan and old flame, Theo, has joined the rebellion. And oh, he’s not over her. And Patrick hasn’t stopped thinking about her since they were kids. Y’all. The tension is palpable.

This narration? Impeccable. You can see why @billiefb_voiceover won the 2024 Audie Award for Best Fiction Narration. She’s incredible. The accent work, the emotions. Glorious!

Highly recommended for lovers of romantasy, Cillian Murphy, and magic! Also, read it via audiobook if possible. 🎧🖤🎧

#romantasy #fantasyromance #fantasybooks #audiobooks #bookreview #bookrecs #bookstagram #aforbiddenalchemy #staceymcewan

Problematic Summer Romance

Ali Hazelwood

4.0

funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

✨ Ali writes another wonderful book. Great characters, fantastic Sicilian setting, the right amount of awkwardness and relatability. Well-done! 🙌🏻

So, Maya Kilgore is a brilliant 23-year-old woman in love with her much older brother’s best friend, Conor Harkness. If you read Not in Love, you met them amidst Eli and Rue’s love story. Conor also has feelings for Maya, but he’s damned stubborn about not acting on them. He’s deeply troubled by not only the age gap, but the power disparity. I get it to an extent. But also, if you don’t take a grown ass woman’s word that she knows what she wants, you are, in fact, trying to take that power away anyway. Men!

I enjoyed the dual timeline of when they met as adults three years ago and the current setting in Italy. The destination wedding was written perfectly. I think. I’ve actually never been to one, but it makes sense to me. I felt the family/friends togetherness in such a warm, inviting way.

I’ll tell you what made this book even better for me is the narration by Elizabeth Lamont. This was my first time hearing her and she is absolutely delightful. She has Maya’s coquetteish flirting down pat. I loooved listening to her. And who doesn’t love @ericanthonynolan? His Conor is a lil bit tormented, but can’t stop the flirt either.

Highly recommended for lovers of age gaps, Italian villas, Irish accents, but not homemade arancello!

#romancebooks #contemporaryromance #alihazelwood #problematicsummerromance #bookreview #bookrecs #bookstagram #audiobooks #elizabethlamont

Matchmaking for Psychopaths

Tasha Coryell

4.0

dark funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

✨ARC Review✨

I had no idea what I was getting into with this one and I don’t think you should either. Just go in as blind as possible and let the story sweep you away. Like a tornado.

Alexandra/Lexie walks into what she thinks is her birthday dinner which, of course, will be followed by the surprise party she’s been heavily hinting she wants. Instead her fiancé and her best friend are seated on the same side of the table. Yeah. You know where this is going.

Lexie leaves and walks to a nearby bar where she plans to drink her troubles away for the night. Instead, a handsome man introduces himself and next thing you know, she’s spending all night with him and his friends and then just him. She drunkenly tells him her darkest secrets since she’s never going to see him again, right?

As a matchmaker for psychopaths, she should know better. I mean, her psychopath clients don’t know they’re being matched as psychopaths, but it’s all in the questionnaire.

She’s dealing poorly with the breakup as it is and then a beautifully wrapped heart is deposited on her doorstep. A literal heart.

This was such a fun and weird read. I loved it! Part romance part thriller part incredibly dysfunctional family dynamics. All clever.

Highly recommended for lovers of fate, serial killers (in fiction), and body parts disposal!

I received this eARC via #netgalley and @berkleypub. All thoughts are mine alone.

#contemporarymystery #contemporaryromance #thrillerbooks #mysterybooks #romancebooks #matchmakingforpsychopaths #tashacoryell #bookreview #bookrecs #bookstagram

The Overtime Kiss

Lauren Blakely

4.0

funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

✨ALC Review ✨

What a fun and delightfully narrated book!

Sabrina Snow rejects her bridegroom at the altar after he inadvertently leaves a voicemail confessing his infidelity then the asshole tries to gaslight her. Her family tries to gaslight her. She’s making up his confession. Like, why would she? Ugh. That very beginning was so hard to read.

But then she goes to a bar and runs into Tyler Falcon, father of her figure skating student and resident hot dad of hockey. They drink and flirt and she makes some confessions of her own including how much she’d love for him to pin her down and give her something she’s never had.

Tyler is a gentleman though. Good man. And now it’s been a few months. She needs a job and he needs a nanny for his two adorable children. His mother sees the perfect solution even those these two knuckleheads aren’t sure how they can handle their attraction in such close proximity. News flash: They can’t. 😂

I love Sabrina and Tyler’s love story. It was just what I needed this week.

Highly recommended for lovers of hot single dads, hockey-adjacent romance, and fantastic duet narration! @narratedbyteddyhamilton and #brookebloomingdale do an amazing job with this duet narration.

I received this eARC via @hambright_pr and @laurenblakeybooks. All thoughts are mine alone.

#romancebooks #contemporaryromance #hockeyromance #singledad #bookreview #bookrecs #bookstagram #theovertimekiss #laurenblakely #HPROvertimeKiss

More...

thischarmingreader's reviews 1458 reviews

thischarmingreader's reviews
1458 reviews