Not Today Cupid by Jennifer Bonds - ARC Review

 

Notes from Triada Investment Meeting:

As compiled by Scarlett Evans—executive assistant, grad student, and reluctant admirer of CEO Nick Hart's snacktastic abs

Well, my fellow corporate drones, it's another less-than-exciting investor meeting with the executives (Loud Talker, Human Buzzword, Master Delegator). And at the front, CEO Nick Hart, the world's coldest—and ok, unbelievably sexy—tech badass. The man hasn't smiled in the history of ever, he runs a tight ship filled with miserable employees, and gosh, he just really does not love feedback. Especially from me.

Development updates, acquisition delays, and…holy hell, why does he keep looking at me? I don't work for him. I work for his brother. Which is good, because otherwise I'd spend every meeting secretly wondering what actually lies beneath that cool, aloof demeanor. Like, is he an uptight geek in the boardroom...and a sexy-assed freak in the bedroom?

He'd better not find out I'm the one stuffing the company suggestion box. What's so wrong with a Valentine's Day Social, anyway? But the fact that my notes are less professional and more entertainment is one seriously dangerous game. Because if he ever found out what I really thought of him, there'd be all kinds of sweet, delicious hell to pay...

I enjoyed a lot about this book. Nick and Scarlett had excellent chemistry and their connection as boss (sort of) and employee to friends felt genuine and authentic.

But, this title also felt a little unbalanced to me. There was a lot time getting to know them, and a lot of time watching them come to like and respect one another. But the time spent with them building their relationship as a couple felt like it was missing and a little glossed over.

In a boss/employee story, or one that is a story that evolves from enemies to friends to lovers I need to believe all of the different stages of the relationship. I believed the tension between them, I believed in the friendship. We start to get an idea of what they would be like as a couple, but it's so close to the end of the book that it doesn't feel fully explored.

Do I believe in them as a couple? Yes. Do I ruin they will be together forever? Yes. Do I think the reader really gets a feel for that? No.

That said, I did enjoy it overall. It's a quick read and I did laugh in places, so I do recommend this title.

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Perfect Enemy by M. Robinson - ARC Review & Release Blitz

From Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling Author M. Robinson comes an enemies to lovers, standalone romance.

She’s twenty-years younger than me.

Half my age.

And twice the trouble.

After two decades of serving, I come home to find nothing’s changed, except her. She’s still thesame carefree girl with wild eyes and a smart mouth. A mouth I’ve wanted to tame for years, but I couldn’t back then and I can’t do it now.

This time I have a job to do and she keeps getting in my way. Because removing her from my life is impossible…

She’s my little sister’s best-friend.

Beyond the Thistles by Samantha Young - ARC Review & Release Blitz

A grumpy vs sunshine, age-gap, romantic suspense set in the Scottish Highlands.

Beyond the Thistles by Samantha Young is now live!

It's been a long time since Walker Ironside left behind Scotland and the memories that haunt him. Yet after years of traveling the world as a bodyguard, Walker misses his homeland enough to return. To a village in the Scottish Highlands that plays host to an exclusive members-only club, Ardnoch Estate. If not happy, Walker is content working with the elite security at the club and maintaining his bachelor lifestyle. What he doesn't need is distraction in the form of the enticing but too-young newcomer, single mother Sloane Harrow.

Sloane never imagined she'd get pregnant at sixteen. Or that a decade later she'd escape from California with her daughter, Callie, to start over in the Scottish Highlands. Hidden and safe from Callie's dangerous father, Sloane is satisfied with their new lives. Her daughter is happy. Sloane has a stable job, a quaint cottage, a passion for baking that might just be turning into a business, and a huge crush on brooding security guard Walker Ironside. Unfortunately, the grumpy Scot seems immune to Sloane's charm, but she can't help but try to seduce him with cupcakes and baked treats whenever the opportunity arises.

However, when someone arrives in Ardnoch intent on destroying Sloane's life, Walker is the first to step forward to protect her and Callie. Even if it means giving into temptation and awakening his own demons. Because in doing so, Walker faces failing not only to shield Sloane from her past, but to safeguard her against his own.

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Accidental Attachment by Max Monroe - ARC Review & Release Blitz

A successful writer accidentally sends her new (and super-dreamy) editor the wrong manuscript. Instead of the full-length paranormal novel she promised Longstrand Publishing, she sends the fan fiction she’s written about her crush…on him—including every detail of the hot, steamy “physical activity” she’s fantasized about happening between them.

And Chase Dawson may be the hottest man alive and a super-talented editor to boot, but he’s completely oblivious that he’s the star of the manuscript he just convinced his boss to green-light.

Brooke Baker has been through a lot in her thirty-one years of life.

A divorce.

A career change.

A move to New York City from “small-town” Ohio.

Not to mention, she has a bit of a medical condition that involves occasional fainting spells, mild embarrassment, and the companionship of her adorable service dog and canine sidekick, Benji.

But none of it has prepared her for this.

None of it prepared her for Chase Dawson.

Strong jaw, blue eyes, cut muscles, and a perfect swoop of superhero-worthy black hair, Chase’s features are those of a book boyfriend and then some. Obviously, Brooke would know—she literally filled an entire manuscript with it.

A manuscript no one was ever supposed to see.

Will she survive two months of revising and editing the sizzling romance she imagined with Chase in extremely close quarters with him? Or will the constant white lies and overwhelming attraction make her spontaneously combust?

The Bachelor by Marni Mann - ARC Review & Release Blast

A scorching hot, forbidden, friends-to-lovers romance from USA Today best-selling author Marni Mann …

Camden Dalton is notorious for three things: his command of the courtroom, his moves in the bedroom, and being the ultimate bachelor, never ever taking a woman home twice.

One drunken night, when Camden and I are accidentally left alone, we make a deal.

My proposition to him: if I don’t lose my virginity within the next year, he promises to take it.

But I don’t just want to do it.

I want to get filthy, dirty, rocked.

And I want to learn how to give as good as I get.

His rebuttal: four lessons on how to be an unforgettable lover. If I can make it through those without catching feelings, then we’ll move on to the fifth and final lesson, where all my naughtiest dreams will come true.

There’s only one problem.

Camden’s twin sister is my BFF.

And he’s forbidden to ever date any of her friends.

We just pray his sister won’t find out because what we’re doing is a whole lot more than dating.

Deep Tide by Laura Griffin - ARC Review

With two brothers on the police force, Leyla Breda is well aware of the rising crime in her small beach town, but she never expected it to show up on her doorstep. When Leyla finds one of her employees murdered in the alley behind her coffee shop, she's deeply shaken, and as a new law enforcement officer in town begins to circle her place of business, her instincts only sharpen.

Sean Moran is on an undercover assignment. The seaside community of Lost Beach may look like a picturesque postcard, but his team suspects it's a point of intersection for several crime syndicates that the FBI has been investigating for years. Even so, when the brash and beautiful Leyla Breda starts bossing him around, he's immediately intrigued. He knows her brothers want him to back off, but every time he sees her, he feels more of a spark.

Leyla's connections in the local community and Sean's skills allow them to go deeper into the case together than they would be able to go alone. But when a single crime spirals into something much darker, Sean's carefully planned mission takes a deadly turn.

Did I enjoy this book? I definitely did. I always enjoy this author's titles. Ms. Griffin has a unique ability to weave romance and suspense in a way that makes it work and doesn't leave you thinking "wait, a first kiss during a gin battle? Does that make sense?"

Leyla and Sean were excellent as a couple and I really liked the heroine. There was something about her that really made me relate to her, despite the fact that I have never encountered a single murder victim, much less an employee.

Plot wise, there isn't a lot I can say that won't be a spoiler for someone, so I will say that this is yet another solid title by this author. It's a standalone, so if you haven't read her other titles, you can absolutely start here...but warning, you are going to then want to read everything she has ever written.

I enjoyed and recommend this title.

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A Little Taste by Tia Louise - ARC Review & Release Blast

  

Aiden Stone is a six-foot-two former Marine with a permanent scowl, dark hair, and dreamy blue eyes.
He’s the oldest of the Stone brothers, and his “by the book” family has battled mine for control of our small town for generations. 

The last thing I should do is sleep with him. Or nearly run him down with my truck. Especially since he's sort-of my new boss...

It doesn’t help that my grandmother (the mayor) is a former magician, and my mom is a psychic (sort-of)... And my dad died in a failed escape-artist attempt (that my mother is convinced was a murder).
Trust me, I know crazy, but I’m just plain ole Britt Bailey, Shania Twain-loving, non-magical forensic photographer. Yes, I take pictures of dead things, but I don’t see them in my bedroom at night. 

I only want to see one thing in my bedroom at night, and when I’m called home to help Sheriff Stone on an investigation, he actually stops frowning for a minute, and my teenage fantasies get very real.  
It’s a terrible idea. We work together, he’s seven years older than me, he’s a single dad, he hates all things magic, but a little taste, and we can’t say no.

Until the town crime wave turns personal, putting everything on the line, and we’ll need more than a magic bullet to get our happily ever after.

(A LITTLE TASTE is a small-town, grumpy single-dad romance with a touch of light suspense and lots of tasty spice. No cheating. No cliffhanger.)