March totally flew by! I ended up binge reading a few books including Neon Gods, Twice Shy and Dear Enemy. My reading really slowed down during the end of the month and now I’m in a weird funk, where even if the story is good I’m just reading it so slooooooowly 😭 I hope to bounce back and read more in April!
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher.
SYNOPSIS
Can you find real love when you’ve always got your head in the clouds?
Maybell Parish has always been a dreamer and a hopeless romantic. But living in her own world has long been preferable to dealing with the disappointments of real life. So when Maybell inherits a charming house in the Smokies from her Great-Aunt Violet, she seizes the opportunity to make a fresh start.
Yet when she arrives, it seems her troubles have only just begun. Not only is the house falling apart around her, but she isn’t the only inheritor: she has to share everything with Wesley Koehler, the groundskeeper who’s as grouchy as he is gorgeous–and it turns out he has very different vision for the property’s future.
Convincing the taciturn Wesley to stop avoiding her and compromise is a task more formidable than the other dying wishes Great-Aunt Violet left behind. But when Maybell uncovers something unexpectedly sweet beneath Wesley’s scowls, and as the two slowly begin to let their guard down, they might learn that sometimes the smallest steps outside one’s comfort zone can lead to the greatest rewards.
REVIEW
After reading and absolutely LOVING You Deserve Each Other last year I couldn’t wait to read more from Sarah Hogle. I honestly was unsure if I would love Twice Shy as much as I love YDEO, but if you could describe a book giving you a big gentle hug – then that is exactly what Twice Shy is.
Maybell Parish is a dreamer and maybe she likes to live in her pretend world more than the real world sometimes. She’s not very happy with her current job, even though she did get a promotion. She’s pretty sure her friend/co-worker isn’t really her friend at all. So when she finds out that her Great-Aunt Violet left her the manor she so fondly remembers from her youth she jumps at the chance to go live there.
Only the manor is now tattered and beat down. Not only is the manor unlivable, but she has to share it with the grouchy groundskeeper Wesley Koehler. He grunts, isn’t very talkative and just largely ignores her. Both have entirely different plans for the estate and are often arguing with one another. How will they every learn to live together?
I loved both Wesley and Maybell so much. I could often imagine the scenes playing out as a movie while I was reading them. The dynamic and chemistry between these two was evident right from the beginning. While Twice Shy was told from Maybell’s perspective, I still felt like I could always relate to Wesley and what he was going through.
I have so many passages highlighted in this book and I honestly need to go back and re-read it again to savor those moments. Sarah does such an effortless job of conveying how Wesley and Maybell are going through grief and anxiety while also writing such beautiful prose. Twice Shy had the perfect mix of angst, longing, sadness and hope.
I received a complimentary audiobook and copy of this book from the publisher.
SYNOPSIS
He lives in secret service to the Crown—a man of duty, deception, and an undeniable attraction to a woman who threatens to tear his whole world apart.
They call him the Devil of Dorset. He stands alone, a man of undeniable power. Moving in and out of shadows, back alleys and ballrooms, he is unstoppable and one of the Crown’s most dangerous weapons. However, when he sets his sights on the undeniably beautiful Countess of Mont Claire, Francesca Cavendish, he doesn’t realize that he has met a match like no other.
TRUE LOVE WEARS NO DISGUISE
Francesca is a countess by day and stalks her prey—those responsible for the death of her family—by night. What she does not expect is to be thrown into the path of the devil himself, the Earl of Devlin. She has secrets of her own and he seems determined to lay them bare. Can her heart survive finding the love of her life and losing him when all is revealed?
REVIEW
Lady Francesca is out for one thing and one thing only – revenge. After her family was massacred the only thing that kept her going was the end goal – to kill everyone that ever harmed her family. Chandler – also known as the Devil of Dorset has his own secrets and for now he’s after one thing – Lady Francesca. When both of them realize that they are after the same goal – will their attraction to one another cause issues for them?
I loved the relationship between Francesca and Chandler. They had so much simmering sexual tension between them and I enjoyed how raw their attraction was to one another. In a sense The Devil in Her Bed was also a fated mates romance, and I loved how Francesca and Chandler’s past was intertwined with their future. The suspenseful parts of the book also had me hooked and I loved the way everything played out.
It was great to see how every single one of these characters came together for the last book in the series. I only wish there was an epilogue!
Audiobook:
Story: 4 Narration: 5 Overall: 4.5
I am a fan of Derek Perkins and he did a wonderful job narrating The Devil in Her Bed. I could always tell when either Chandler or Francesca was happy, mad, frustrated or sad. He always does a great job conveying the different emotions in the characters in the book. And his accents were always so good!! I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook and I think it definitely amplified how much I enjoyed The Devil in Her Bed.
If you’re looking for a suspenseful, sweet and sexy romance definitely give the Devil You Know series a try!
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