I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher.
SYNOPSIS
Twelve humans are left stranded on a wintry alien planet. I’m one of them. Yay, me.
In order to survive, we have to take on a symbiont that wants to rewire our bodies to live in this brutal place. I like to call it a cootie. And my cootie’s a jerk, because it also thinks I’m the mate to the biggest, surliest alien of the group.
BARBARIAN ALIEN is a sequel to ICE PLANET BARBARIANS. You do not have to read both in order to understand the plot, but the story will be richer if you do!
REVIEW
After reading and really enjoying Ice Planet Barbarians I needed to read Liz’s story next and this book totally delivered. I loved how feisty and independent Liz was and how equally stubborn and protective Raahosh was of her.
Where Ice Planet Barbarians felt more like insta-love, I really enjoyed the slow burn, sexual tension filled romance between Liz and Raahosh. They had major communication issues and they didn’t come together easily, but I was still rooting for these two to end up together and find their way to one another.
If you’re looking for a quick read with lots of sexual tension and steamy scenes – read Barbarian Alien! I am ready to binge the whole series – really enjoying the humans & their blue aliens.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher.
SYNOPSIS
Ari Abrams has always been fascinated by the weather, and she loves almost everything about her job as a TV meteorologist. Her boss, legendary Seattle weatherwoman Torrance Hale, is too distracted by her tempestuous relationship with her ex-husband, the station’s news director, to give Ari the mentorship she wants. Ari, who runs on sunshine and optimism, is at her wits’ end. The only person who seems to understand how she feels is sweet but reserved sports reporter Russell Barringer.
In the aftermath of a disastrous holiday party, Ari and Russell decide to team up to solve their bosses’ relationship issues. Between secret gifts and double dates, they start nudging their bosses back together. But their well-meaning meddling backfires when the real chemistry builds between Ari and Russell.
Working closely with Russell means allowing him to get to know parts of herself that Ari keeps hidden from everyone. Will he be able to embrace her dark clouds as well as her clear skies?
A TV meteorologist and a sports reporter scheme to reunite their divorced bosses with unforecasted results in this charming romantic comedy from the author of The Ex Talk.
REVIEW
Ari Abrams loves the weather and her job as a meteorologist at a local TV channel. What Ari doesn’t love is how her boss and idol, Torrence is always at odds with the stations news director Seth. The two have been divorced for a few years, but both work at the same station and situations have a tendency to get tense.
Russell Barringer, a sports reporter at the same station comes up with a plan. What if Ari and him were to get Seth and Torrence into situations where they’d end up alone with one another. Would that rekindle their love for one another? Maybe that might make their jobs more enjoyable. Ari would maybe be able to get more mentoring from Torrence and Russell would be able to cover a larger variety of sports to report on. But the more scheming they get into, the more time they end up spending together and their attraction starts to grow. Will they end up not only succeeding in getting their bosses back together, but also finding a way to each other?
What I loved about Weather Girl, is the way each character was so well developed. Everyone from Ari to Russell’s daughter to Ari’s mom. These characters who we are so invested in each have their own story to tell and they are all important to the storyline.
Mental health is a vital part of the story in Weather Girl and I feel that Rachel Lynn Solomon did such a wonderful job of letting us into the vulnerabilities that Ari feels while dealing with her depression. Ari’s relationship with her mother impacted her in so many ways and while that was hard to read, I really enjoyed how she grew to accept her depression. Some of those moments with her mom were my favorite and I have so many of them highlighted.
I loved the sweet and slow burn between Ari and Russell. Both of them have so many vulnerabilities and I really liked that they took their relationship slow. While Ari is not sure how to share her depression with Russell, he isn’t sure how to talk about his daughter or his weight. You don’t see that often enough in romances – that a male character also struggles with their weight and how that feels for them. These sensitive topics were done so well in Weather Girl.
As with Rachel’s previous adult romance, The Ex Talk, I really liked the references to Judaism in Weather Girl. Both Ari and Russell are Jewish and I really enjoyed the way topics of Judaism were discussed for these characters – everything from not celebrating Christmas to Russell’s daughter’s bat mitzvah.
Overall, I really enjoyed Weather Girl, this book often felt like a warm hug and I feel like we could all use a little more of that!
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher.
SYNOPSIS
Beach Read meets The Flatshare in this warmly funny and delightfully sharp debut rom-com about a down-on-her-luck young woman who turns an innocent mix-up between a dating app and a roommate app into a new chance at love.
After getting passed over for an overdue—and much needed—promotion, Sadie Green is in desperate need of three things: a stiff drink, a new place to live, and a one-night-stand. When one drink turns into one too many, Sadie mixes up a long-ignored dating app for a roommate-finding app and finds herself on the doorstep of Jack Thomas’s gorgeous Brooklyn brownstone. Too bad she’s more attracted to his impressive real estate than she is to the man himself.
Jack, still grieving the unexpected death of his parents, has learned to find comfort in video games and movie marathons instead of friends. So while he doesn’t know just what to make of the vivaciously verbose Sadie, he’s willing to offer her his spare bedroom while she gets back on her feet. And with the rent unbeatably low, Sadie can finally pursue her floristry side hustle full-time. The two are polar opposites, but as Sadie’s presence begins to turn the brownstone into a home, they both start to realize they may have just made the deal of a lifetime.
REVIEW
When Sadie Green gets passed up for the promotion she has been working so hard for – she lets it all out and is unfortunately fired from her job. Sadie is unsure what to do, but she has a great group of friends that rally behind her and lift up her spirits. When a swipe right that was supposed to be for a potential online date actually turns out to be a swipe right on a roommate, Sadie ends up meeting Jack. The owner of an impressive brownstone in Brooklyn.
Sadie and Jack agree to the terms and Sadie decides to turn her life around and attempt floristry. Something she’s always been interested in. Jack lays low and hasn’t really had a lot of friends/relationships since the death of his parents a few years ago. He’s still grieving and Sadie gives him all the space that he needs.
But soon the forced proximity of living together has these two looking at each other in a different light. Will they be able to make a relationship work, when both of them are trying to work out their own issues?
Oh how I loved Lease on Love. The writing by Falon Ballard was funny, heartfelt and I couldn’t stop reading this book once I started. Sadie and Jack were both characters that had so many layers to them. Not just them as individuals, but their backstories, their friendships and what made them the way that they are.
Although Lease on Love was a slow, slow, slow burn I never felt that it was going too slow. Sadie and Jack truly started off as roommates that progressed to friends and then to something more. Their relationship took a natural course and I was never bored or willing them to go faster.
One aspect of books with so many side characters is that sometimes it’s too many people and voices. But in this case I loved Sadie’s group of friends. The text messages, the ribbing, the way they loved each other unconditionally was so perfect. Found families in books can be hit and miss, but it was a total hit in the case with Lease on Love
Overall I truly enjoyed Lease on Love. I wasn’t completely sold on the final conflict in the story, but still loved the story enough to round up my rating to five stars!. I can’t wait to read what Falon Ballard writes next!
CW: grief, parental death (off page), parental verbal abuse/abandonment
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher.
SYNOPSIS
He was the most beautiful man alive. And if I wasn’t careful, he was going to be my death.
*A scorchingly hot modern retelling of Psyche and Eros that’s as sinful as it is sweet.*
In the ultra-modern city of Olympus, there’s always a price to pay. Psyche knew she’d have to face Aphrodite’s ire eventually, but she never expected her literal heart to be at stake…or for Aphrodite’s gorgeous son to be the one ordered to strike the killing blow.
Eros has no problem shedding blood. But when it comes time to take out his latest target, he can’t do it. Confused by his reaction to Psyche, he does the only thing he can think of to keep her safe: he marries her. Psyche vows to make Eros’s life a living hell until they find a way out of this mess. But as lines blur and loyalties shift, she realizes he might take her heart after all…and she’s not sure she can survive the loss.
REVIEW
Psyche is used to playing a specific type of public persona. She has to be while living in Olympus otherwise the vultures will tear her apart. Not only for being a part of the thirteen, but also because she’s not what you would consider conventionally “beautiful.” Pysche is plus sized and not afraid to own it.
Eros has his own persona to uphold. He does his mothers bidding. When she has an obstacle in her way, she relies on Eros to eliminate that pesky little problem. Usually Eros doesn’t have any issue with doing as he’s told. Except this one time when it’s Pysche who his mother wants destroyed. Eros defies her and decides to keep Psyche safe any which way he can. Marriage seems to be the only course of action to protect themselves for the time being. Will they be able to pull of the ruse to a city that watches the thirteen like hawks on any given day?
I absolutely loved this modern take on Eros and Pysche. And while I am not familiar with the Greek tale of these two – I think that Katee Robert did a wonderful job sucking me into this world in Electric Idol. I fell hard for both Eros and Psyche. Their modern marriage of convenience + fake dating was so perfectly angsty.
The amount of vulnerability that these two display had my heart fluttering so many times. They were often stuck between a rock and a hard place and yet both of them only wanted what was best for the other. I feel like the vulnerability between these two also made the more intimate scenes in Electric Idol so so so hot.
I have so many scenes highlighted! I can’t wait to re-read this book again. The suspense, the drama, the romance (and steam) definitely put it up there as a book I highly recommend. I can’t wait to see which sister’s story will be next!
Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize the purchase.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher.
SYNOPSIS
Six summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A weekend to get it right.
They say you can never go home again, and for Persephone Fraser, ever since she made the biggest mistake of her life a decade ago, that has felt too true. Instead of glittering summers on the lakeshore of her childhood, she spends them in a stylish apartment in the city, going out with friends, and keeping everyone a safe distance from her heart.
Until she receives the call that sends her racing back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek—the man she never thought she’d have to live without.
For six summers, through hazy afternoons on the water and warm summer nights working in his family’s restaurant and curling up together with books—medical textbooks for him and work-in-progress horror short stories for her—Percy and Sam had been inseparable. Eventually that friendship turned into something breathtakingly more, before it fell spectacularly apart.
When Percy returns to the lake for Sam’s mother’s funeral, their connection is as undeniable as it had always been. But until Percy can confront the decisions she made and the years she’s spent punishing herself for them, they’ll never know whether their love might be bigger than the biggest mistakes of their past.
Told over the course of six years and one weekend, Every Summer After is a big, sweeping nostalgic look at love and the people and choices that mark us forever.
REVIEW
Percy meets Sam one summer when her family buys a cottage on the lake for a summer home. Percy and Sam immediately form a bond – both just starting their teen years. They form a sweet friendship and become inseparable by the end of that first summer and every summer after. Until one summer twelve years ago when Percy and Sam suddenly stop talking. What happened that summer and why haven’t they kept in touch? Percy is now headed back to Barry’s Bay for Sam’s mothers funeral. Will Sam and Percy move on from whatever tore them apart 12 years ago?
As soon as I started reading Every Summer After I immediately fell in love with both Sam and Percy. Their friendship was so sweet and pure when they first met. I loved watching them grow together through flashbacks as well as how rocky their relationship is in the present. What happened, why did they drift apart?? These are the questions I needed answers to even though I knew they’d break my heart.
Carley Fortune’s writing is so beautiful. I couldn’t stop reading and felt like I was right there with Percy and Sam every summer on the lake. I enjoyed every single secondary character in Every Summer After and each of them was essential to the story.
Every Summer After was heartbreakingly beautiful. This book was extremely hard to read at times and my heart broke on more than one occasion. Overall I would give Every Summer After 4.5 stars!
CW: cheating, death of a parent, bullying, panic attacks/anxiety.
Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize the purchase.
I didn’t get a lot of reading done in December, but it was a very busy month so I’m not really surprised. Standouts for December included the Ice Planet Barbarians series, re-read of Fix Her Up and Every Summer After which releases in the spring. Hoping that 2022 will bring us a lot of amazing books 🙂
2021 reading was a wild ride! I didn’t read quite as many books as I have in previous years, but I’m okay with that. Life was hectic, busy, chaotic and full of ups and downs this past year. The books I did read were pretty amazing for the most part.
The books listed below are my favorite 10 books that I read this year. Narrowing down the choices was so hard! There is a mix of books that were published from previous years, this year and even a few ARCs that are releasing in 2022. These were all five star reads for me and I highly recommend each and every single one!
Second chance romance and so much shared history and angst between the two.
Forced proximity situations that had me laughing out loud, yet swooning at the same time.
Slow burn and so much sexual tension
While Dear Enemy is a standalone, I definitely recommend the other book in this duology – Make it Sweet which technically takes place after Dear Enemy.
Highly recommend the audiobook to Dear Enemy -it was fantastic!
This book was just…sigh so great. It was such a sweet and soft romance.
And although there was a lot of humor throughout the book, there was also a lot of discussion on grief and starting over that was written so beautifully.
A second chance romance told over the span of years
Two very head strong characters who will not settle for anything less, but want only the best for each other
Political intrigue and issues being discussed that are still affecting us including: how indigenous people are being treated, clean energy, race, gender
Wonderful book about the loss of friendships, new friendships and the vulnerability that comes with both.
Sweetest romance with great banter. I had a grin on my face every time Willa & Liam were on the same page. I was constantly laughing out loud and rooting for the two to get together!
A book so profound and touching that I can’t possibly do it justice with my words – highly recommend!
Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize the purchase.
You’d think being abducted by aliens would be the worst thing that could happen to me. And you’d be wrong. Because now, the aliens are having ship trouble, and they’ve left their cargo of human women – including me – on an ice planet.
And the only native inhabitant I’ve met? He’s big, horned, blue, and really, really has a thing for me…
REVIEW
Georgie finds her self abducted an on a strange icy planet. She’s alone, scared but bands together with the other women on the ship to take over the aliens. Now Georgie somehow finds herself the leader and sets out to find out if the planet is hospitable.
This is where she runs in to blue alien Vektal. As Georgie comes to know Vektal she realizes that 1) he totally has a thing for her and 2) he already considers her his mate. Georgie’s not sure if she wants to stay on the strange planet with Vektal or find a way back home.
Okay, so the hype was real with Ice Planet Barbarians. I have been hearing about this series for quite some time yet, but only recently decided to read the series when the cover got an overhaul (love the new cover by the way). I went in with a very open mind – which you will totally need to. And I ended up really loving Georgie and Vektal.
There was a lot of hot alien sex – so definitely be prepared. I liked the set up of characters though and I look forward to reading the next book in the series!
I can’t believe that the year is almost over – where did it go?? I feel like at times this year was moving at a snails pace and then bam – it’s already December! I need to start thinking about my top list of books in 2021 already! I’ve read so many amazing books this year. While I didn’t read a lot this month, the books that I did read were spectacular. Standouts include The Wedding Ringer, Love, Lists, and Fancy Ships and Duke, Actually!
Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize the purchase.
Love, Lists, and Fancy Ships by Sarah Grunder Ruiz
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Genre: Contemporary Romance/Women’s Fiction
Heat Level: Closed Door
Release Date: November 23, 2021
Publisher: Berkley
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher.
SYNOPSIS
Sometimes a yacht, a bold bucket list, and a kiss with a handsome stranger are all a person needs to dive into the deep end of life.
For the last year, yacht stewardess Jo Walker has been attempting to complete a bucket list of thirty things she wants to accomplish by her birthday. Jo has almost everything she’s ever wanted, including a condo on the beach (though she’s the youngest resident by thirty years) and an exciting job (albeit below deck) that lets her travel the world.
Jo is on track until a family tragedy turns her life upside down, and the list falls by the wayside. But when her two nieces show up unannounced with plans to stay the summer, they discover her list and insist on helping Jo finish it. Though the remaining eight items (which include running a marathon, visiting ten countries, and sleeping in a castle) seem impossible to complete in twelve weeks, Jo takes on the challenge.
When she summons the courage to complete item number five–kiss a stranger–and meets Alex Hayes, all bets are off. As her feelings for Alex intensify and Jo’s inability to confront difficult emotions about her family complicates her relationships, she must learn to quit playing it safe with her heart before she loses what matters most.
REVIEW
Yacht stewardess Jo Walker is on a mission – to complete a 30 before 30 bucket list! She’s checked off so many of the items on her list and only has a handful of things left to do. But recently Jo hasn’t felt much like celebrating or ticking items off of a list. She lost her young nephew and she now feels lost and not so sure what brings her joy.
But Jo’s summer is about to turn upside down because her nieces are coming to visit for the summer! And they are adamant that Jo completes her list. One of the items on Jo’s list is kissing a stranger and Jo soon realizes that the stranger she ended up kissing would be no other than the yacht chef Alex orhot yacht chef as he wants to be known (lol!). As Jo and Alex grow closer, will she let down her guard and let him in or keep everything on the surface as she has been since her nephew passed.
Love, Lists, and Fancy Ships was such an emotional read for me. Sarah’s writing was so poignant and she truly writes beautiful prose. I would stop reading a passage just to reread it again. I felt Jo’s pain as well as the pain of her nieces and even her sister after losing a prominent figure in their lives. And while yes, the heavy parts of this book could be really heavy – I also found myself laughing or grinning like a fool at the antics of Jo and her nieces, or Jo and her best friend Nina or Jo and Alex (swoon)!
While LL&FS crossed over more to women’s fiction, the romance aspect was definitely prominent. I was longing for Alex and Jo to find their way to one another. They both had to get there on their own though and I loved their respective journey’s.
I highly recommend Love, Lists and Fancy Ships and can’t wait to read the next book in this series!
CW: death of a loved one, grief, parental neglect, cheating (not main character)
Readaholic Book Reviews 