There might be a few days left in the month, but I’m calling it a wrap – there are already plenty of great candidates for my Best of the Month list (coming soon)! Plus, you know, it’s a holiday weekend and there aren’t any new releases til Tuesday. May started off a little slow, but things had certainly picked up by the end of the month, and I’ve still got a few things on my TBR. I filled in the slow weeks with books that have been lingering on my TBR, and that made for a pretty awesome reading month. June is already looking great too, so that’s exciting news.
If you missed my June Release Calendar, you can find it here!
If you missed any of this month’s reviews, I’ve got the blurb and rating for each below. There’s also a link to all of this month’s recommendation lists and the new release list.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Loved it
These two on-air enemies can’t stop rubbing each other the wrong way in the booth…and the right way in bed.
Theo
Whoever said “keep your enemies close” never had to share a small, dark sound booth with her. Daria Stone is the infuriating host of “Choosing Yourself.” The name is almost as ridiculous as the concept. Permanently single? Please. The woman’s made a career out of rejecting everything I stand for.
I’m looking for the one. The right woman who’s ready for marriage and a lifetime together. Not some sultry, stubborn vixen who makes my life a living hell and insists a husband can be replaced by a curated collection of bedroom toys. And I know she’s wearing those skin-tight leather pants just to annoy me.
Daria
Dr. Theo Chadwick is a professional pain in my…workplace. Sure—on the outside, the man is gorgeous. But he’s also obsessed with finding his better half and getting his radio show, “True Romance,” syndicated so he can give false hope to lovelorn listeners everywhere.
He keeps pushing my buttons with his arrogant “expertise” about how wrong I am. I just want to see him snap. Maybe that’s how I ended up here, pinned against a wall with my legs wrapped around his waist…whoops…
Can these enemies put their feud on hold and play nice in a shared timeslot to save their popular beach town radio station? Or will their sparks burn everything to the ground?
Author’s Note: One-click if you love forced proximity, breakroom bickering, “we’re just getting it out of our system” one-night stands, a rag-tag crew of DJs, and beachy, retro boardwalk magic.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3wEbkXV
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Loved it
A former model, a grumpy lawyer, and a single dad walk into an audition for a children’s musical… They’re all Miles Brodie. It’s only cute if you aren’t the director who’s being bribed to cast his daughter.
DEAR MS. CROSS,
Re: Our discussion
1. True. Casting my daughter as the lead in your musical could be considered bribery if people find out I’m investing in it, but no one needs to know.
2. I only want to hire you as Macy’s singing coach so her vocal skills will improve.
3. Maybe if you’d spent less time surfing and more on your singing career, you wouldn’t be in this financial predicament.
4. Re. your living situation—my neighbor has a guest house. If you cast Macy as Alice, I will pay for your first three months’ rent.
Do we have a deal?
Best regards,
Miles Brodie
DEAR MR. BRODIE,
1. It absolutely is bribery, but I absolutely need that money for my production. Thanks!
2. It is very cute that you will do anything to get Macy this part, but I would only coach that sweet child as a favor to all mammals with functional hearing.
3. If I spend less time surfing, will you spend less time jogging on my beach with your shirt off?
4. You want to pay me to live next door so you don’t have to drive anywhere to frown at me?
5. I have another condition for casting Macy as Alice—you have to perform the part of the Cheshire Cat.
Purrrrrrr,
Aria
* This is a 70,000 word standalone steamy romantic comedy novel.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/39Gc7zE
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Loved it 🎧
That awkward moment when an ER doctor has to inform you that you’re pregnant…with his baby.
Three things Lynsey Jones knows about the hot doctor: he’s grouchy, an arrogant jerk, and strangely obsessed with pie.
Three things Dr. Josh Richardson knows: he doesn’t talk about his past, he doesn’t do relationships, and the crazy girl in the hospital cafeteria who ate a fistful of French silk pie…is annoyingly irresistible.
After a chance meetup at a bar and a heated cab ride together, things come to a head and now instead of hating each other, they’re horizontal in a bed.
Three months later, the weird cafeteria stalker who crept out of Josh’s house like a thief in the night, winds up as his patient in the ER after her Tinder date from hell.
The doctor is prepared to keep it cool and professional. That is until her bloodwork reveals that she’s pregnant.
What really throws him for a loop…is that the surprise baby…is his.
Read the audiobook review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3l5Dvd5
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Loved it 🎧
An insightful, delightful new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read and People We Meet on Vacation.
One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn’t see coming…
Nora Stephens’ life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.
Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.
If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.
Read the audiobook review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3y8CRDg
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Worth the wait
What happens when a single mother is forced to live with a grumpy, ailing football star? The smolder turns red hot.
A standalone follow-up to the best-selling, WRECKING BALL.
Amanda Shaw has pulled it together. It’s taken a couple of years, a boatload of hard work, and a ton of self-discipline, but she finally has her problems in a headlock. Her yoga studio in the city has become so successful she’s opening one near the beach, and her relationship with her ten-year-old son is improving every day. The last thing she needs is a monkey wrench thrown into her smoothly running life.
Grant Hendricks is one big monkey wrench. The four-time Defensive Player of the Year, three-time NFL sack leader, and all-around football god has officially hit rock bottom. A devastating back injury means he may have to retire and that scares him more than doctors telling him the next hit could leave him paralyzed. All he needs is a quiet place to think and his teammate’s beach house sounds like just the place. Problem is, the woman already living there.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/386jv7a
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Light and sexy
A lonely barista’s dreams come true when her celebrity crush asks her to pose as his fake girlfriend for the paparazzi. What could possibly go wrong?
Boone Sheridan is a TV heartthrob with a public relations problem. He needs to clean up his image and create a distraction ASAP. What better way to do that than pretending he’s settled down with a nice, wholesome, ordinary girlfriend?
Eve Tracey is as ordinary as they come—a pre-school teacher and part-time barista working two jobs to make ends meet. She also happens to be a recovering Boone Sheridan superfan. So when the object of her former obsession walks into her coffee shop and makes her an unbelievable offer, how can she refuse?
Acting like she’s in love with Boone Sheridan is no problem for Eve. But she’s read enough fake dating fanfics to know that being on the receiving end of Boone’s pretend affection is almost certainly a recipe for heartbreak—and she’s too realistic to believe the fantasy will extend any further than that.
There’s nothing for a starstruck fangirl to do but brace herself for the pain of letting Boone go at the end of their temporary arrangement.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3EINtKf
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Light and sexy
He’s everyone’s dream man but hers.
Bryn
I used to believe in what we do at Mayberry Matchmakers, but now? Love is just another four-letter word.
Too bad my grandmother hasn’t gotten the memo. When tech billionaire Rory Byrne approaches us, wanting to develop the matchmaking app my sister and I dreamed up (and Nana shot down), she jumps at the chance. My grandmother is nothing if not opportunistic.
Of course, there’s a catch. She’ll only do it if Rory lets us matchmake him the old-fashioned way.
He’s going to say no.
Please God, let him say no.
The last thing I want to do is matchmake an entitled rich jerk…especially one who looks like sin and talks a good game.
***
Rory
I’ve screwed up in love a few times, but I never screw up in business. Mayberry Matchmakers has the idea for something amazing, and I have the money and the experience to make it come to life.
I should deny Nana Mayberry’s condition. If I let them matchmake me, it’ll be all over the news, and making headlines has never interested me…especially not after the personal betrayal that nearly broke me. But I’m having trouble caring about what I should do, because Bryn Mayberry is smart, snarky, and not the slightest bit impressed with me.
Actually, this may be Mayberry Matchmakers’ easiest job yet.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3qzd6HO
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️* With an asterisk
Want to know what happens to a man who barely claws his way out of a tragedy, only to fall right into the arms of the one girl in the world he can never have?
Another tragedy, that’s what.
When I was six years old, my father made a choice that altered the course of my entire life.
Because of what he did, the only girl I ever loved became the only girl I couldn’t have.
In a lot of ways, I did have her…
I had her first steps, her first words, her first smile. I had her milestones, her heartbreaks, her dreams. I had her heart so woven in with mine, I didn’t know where she ended, and I began.
Only, as the years pressed on, lines became blurred—and the blurrier the line, the easier it is to cross.
They say tragedy comes in threes.
For me, that was true.
The first one changed me, the second one broke me, and the third one healed me.
But at the center of all that tragedy… there is a love story.
And at the center of that love story,
There is June.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3rIkoJS
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Great series
Gear up for an all-the-feels, steamy slow-burn in this enemies-to-lovers sports romance about fighting for love when life’s taught you it’s a losing game.
Gavin
We’ve been teammates for two years, but it feels like a lifetime that Oliver Bergman’s been on my last nerve. A demanding captain and veteran player, I’m feared and friendless, while he’s the beloved rising star, all sunshine smiles and upbeat team spirit. To make matters worse, he’s obscenely attractive. In short: he’s genetically designed to get under my skin.
Avoiding Oliver has been my survival tactic on and off the field. But when Coach drops the bomb that we’re now co-captains, avoiding him becomes impossible, and keeping the truth from him–let alone my distance–is harder than ever.
Oliver
Life was great until soccer legend Gavin Hayes joined the team and proved he’s nothing like the guy I grew up idolizing. Instead, he’s a giant–albeit gorgeous–grump who lives to rain on my parade. I’ve sworn off pranks since entering the public eye, so rather than settle our differences the Bergman way, I’ve had to settle for killing Gavin with kindness. There’s just one problem: killing him with kindness is killing me.
To make matters worse, Coach gives us an ultimatum: put an end to our enmity or say goodbye to being captains. I’m prepared to be miserable while we meet her demands and make nice, but the last thing I expect is to discover an explosive attraction we can’t help but act on, and worse yet, to realize the man hiding beneath Gavin’s gruff exterior is all I’ve ever wanted.
Everything for You is a grumpy-sunshine, enemies-to-lovers, age gap sports romance about an upbeat rising soccer star with anxiety and his curmudgeonly veteran teammate who lives with chronic pain. Complete with nosy senior citizens, nosier siblings, and a meddling coach, this standalone slow burn is the fifth in a series of novels about a Swedish-American family of five brothers, two sisters, and their wild adventures as they each find happily ever after.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3Mm1YX2
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Rocky start, solid finish 🎧
A gym nemesis pushes a fitness influencer to the max in Amy Lea’s steamy debut romantic comedy.
Curvy fitness influencer Crystal Chen built her career shattering gym stereotypes and mostly ignoring the trolls. After her recent breakup, she has little stamina left for men, instead finding solace in the gym – her place of power and positivity.
Enter firefighter Scott Ritchie, the smug new gym patron who routinely steals her favorite squat rack. Sparks fly as these ultra-competitive foes battle for gym domination. But after a series of escalating jabs, the last thing they expect is to run into each other at their grandparents’ engagement party.
In the lead up to their grandparents’ wedding, Crystal discovers there’s a soft heart under Scott’s muscled exterior. Bonding over family, fitness, and cheesy pick-up lines, they just might have found her swolemate. But when a photo of them goes viral, savage internet trolls put their budding relationship to the ultimate test of strength.
Read the audiobook review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3MohJNH
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Light and easy
Drunk-texting a grumpy soccer star?
Best worst decision of my life.
Especially when the player is the sinfully handsome, foul-mouthed Holden Sanders… my new library assistant.The benched bad boy needed an image makeover, I needed to save my job, and his star status was just what the library ordered to raise awareness for our fundraising campaign. The press can’t get enough of Mr. Growly reading to kids.
It’s win-win and completely platonic.
Until I need a shoulder to cry on after drowning my heartbreak in too many margaritas. I only typed that invitation to his brawny biceps and perfect pectorals for fun–I never meant to hit send. Holden isn’t the kind of guy to care about tears and feelings, least of all mine. He’s made it clear good girls aren’t his type.
But he shows up–with his strapping shoulder, a box of tissues, and a supersized bag of Doritos.
That’s when I realize there’s more to him than meets the eye.
One soulful, smoldering mistake of a kiss has me craving more, and the heat between us quickly builds to a blaze neither of us can control.
But I’m not the only one guarding secrets, and Holden’s might push us to the breaking point.
Even if I’m surrounded by books, I know better than to believe in storybook endings.
And yet, I want to believe… Because I know he’s a keeper.
He’s a Keeper is a standalone romance in the San Francisco Strikers series with no cliffhangers and a HEA.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3OGa2nt
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Pros and cons
New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh brings you a sinfully playful contemporary romance between two sworn enemies turned partners in crime…
Daniel Esera is a young god on the rugby field, a sexy and charming man who’s got the world at his feet. There’s just one problem: his sudden potent attraction to his number one nemesis–Catie River. No. Just no. Not happening.
Catie River is on her way to Paralympic gold, and she’s not about to allow Danny “Hotshot” Esera to derail her plans. Too bad her body isn’t cooperating. Even worse? Her heart might be coming along for the ride. No. Nope. Never.
The pair are united in their desire to remain enemies… until a stranger’s reckless action threatens both their careers. Now, the only way out for Catie and Danny is to pretend to be in a relationship. How bad can it be? They’re adults in full control of their hormones and their hearts. There will be no kissing. No PDA. And definitely no falling in love.
Let the games begin.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3740dPc
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Mixed feelings
Pro hockey player Archer Holt is taking his charm and swagger from the ice to the…sand? One of sixteen players competing to be the last man standing on a new reality show, he’s all in until he finds out the meaning behind the show’s title—Exiled.
Archer
Before I was a pro hockey player, I was an Eagle Scout. I can tie knots, build shelters and fish like nobody’s business, making me the perfect choice to represent my team on a reality show set on a primitive tropical island. I can endure scorching heat, tough competitions and torrential rainfall—no problem. But when I find out who my partner is, I’m not so sure I’ll survive being stranded on an island with her.
Lauren
Archer Holt broke my heart eight years ago. Now he’s rich and famous, and I’m a high school English teacher in our hometown. When I’m offered the chance to compete for half a million dollars by outlasting fifteen other teams on an island with my selfish jerk of an ex, I jump at it, because that money can change not just my life, but my family’s. Besides, I’m long over Archer.
Or so I thought.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3OyOg5d
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Hated the heroine 🎧
Enemies should never get a second chance. But this one might…
It’s been twelve years since I’ve seen him. Twelve years since he won our war of wits by outsmarting me with a tactic I didn’t even know was allowed. But tonight…I resurrect the battle.
Ryan Henderson is back in town for our best friends’ wedding, and I plan on showing him exactly how much I don’t care about him—or the almost kiss he ruthlessly dangled over me after graduation. A lot has changed since our feuding days. I’m a successful bakery owner now, and I plan to rub every delicious detail of my life in his ugly face. Just one problem: his face is gorgeous. He wasn’t supposed to look like this or pursue me like a sexy guided missile. I must stay strong until the wedding is over and Ryan scurries back into whatever alternate universe he escaped from. His interest in me is nothing but a continuation of the games we played in high school…right?
But the longer he stays, the more I wonder if I’m wrong and his tender smile and heated attentions are genuine. Maybe it’s not a game. Ha! Who am I kidding? This is Ryan we’re talking about. Of course it’s a game. A game called war. And this time, I will win.
The Enemy is a feel-good, closed-door romantic comedy! Perfect for readers who enjoy sweet, sizzling chemistry with passionate kissing only.
Read the audiobook review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3vP7QTf
⭐️⭐️⭐️ A little bland
Sometimes to truly know a person, you have to read between the lines.
Isabelle is completely lost. When she first began her career in publishing after college, she did not expect to be twenty-five, still living at home, and one of the few Black employees at her publishing house. Overworked and underpaid, constantly torn between speaking up or stifling herself, Izzy thinks there must be more to this publishing life. So when she overhears her boss complaining about a beastly high-profile author who has failed to deliver his long-awaited manuscript, Isabelle sees an opportunity to prove her worth and finally get the recognition she deserves.
All she has to do is go to the author’s Santa Barbara mansion and give him a quick pep talk or three. How hard could it be?
But Izzy quickly finds out she is in over her head. Beau Towers is not some celebrity lightweight writing a tell-all memoir. He is jaded and withdrawn and—it turns out—just as lost as Izzy. But despite his standoffishness, Izzy needs Beau to deliver, and with her encouragement, his story begins to spill onto the page. They soon discover they have more in common than either of them expected, and as their deadline nears, Izzy and Beau begin to realize there may be something there that wasn’t there before.
Best-selling author Jasmine Guillory’s reimagining of a beloved fairy tale is a tale as old as time . . . for a new generation.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3k2Uz2C
⭐️⭐️ Didn’t love it
Pride, Prejudice, and Flip-flops. A beachy take on a classic romance from romcom author Sarah Ready.
Fun-loving Isla Waterstone loves her laid-back life on Mariposa Island. She has everything she could ever want…a great job as a journalist for the local paper, amazing friends, and pink sand beaches with stunning tropical sunsets.
The only problem with tiny tropical islands? There are more sea turtles than single men.
So when British billionaire Declan Fox and his aristocratic friend arrive, Isla’s friends know this can mean only one thing.
Marriage.
After all, it’s a truth universally acknowledged, when a single billionaire travels to a tropical island, he must be in want of a wife.
But Isla isn’t convinced. Especially because Declan is the most rude, arrogant, prideful man she’s ever met.
Or is he?
From tropical Mariposa to England and back again, this playful summer romcom, finds that first impressions don’t always tell the whole story.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3k0EoTs
THIS MONTH’S RECOMMENDATION LISTS
15 Fiery Forbidden Romance Novels
15 Sexy Single Mom Romance Novels
Tossed Off the TBR: The DNF Report
Check out this week’s new releases here.
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