Balancing the Books to 10th January – Jill’s Book Cafe

Going forward this will be a list of the books I’ve added to my Kindle/bookshelves versus books I’ve read. Choosing this format I’m hoping it might, albeit gradually, curb my excessive purchasing. That said I’m fairly certain that books purchased will always exceed books read! However, on the money side I’m normally very good at keeping my spending within budget, so one set of books might balance.

(NB This post features Affiliate links from which I earn a small commission on qualifying purchases)

Purchases since 1st January

Read Since 1st January

Books Purchased

Always and Only You by Fiona Lucas (99p)

Erin is about to marry the love of her life. She and Simon have been together for eight years so it feels right that they’re finally tying the knot. It’s been stressful balancing the demands of friends and family – not to mention Simon’s difficult best man, Gil – but Erin couldn’t be happier.

Couldn’t be happier, that is, until she walks down the aisle and finds the wrong man waiting for her. But is the universe playing a cruel trick on Erin, or could it be that her perfect life isn’t quite what she imagined…?

An Ideal Husband by Erica James (99p)

After a long and seemingly happy marriage, and a wonderful family Christmas, Louisa is stunned when husband Kip asks for a divorce on Boxing Day. He’d never seemed unhappy – and they’ve raised three children together.

For months, Kip has been secretly seeing a younger woman – and if that wasn’t bad enough, it’s the woman who broke their youngest son’s heart.

Now Kip is moving out and embarking on a new life with Zoe, and Louisa is left to pick up the pieces. Their beloved family home, Charity Cottage, is up for sale, and tensions are running high.

Yet, despite the betrayal and anger, when Louisa lays eyes on what might be a unique and welcoming new home, she feels a first glimmer of hope that life might be taking a turn for the better.

And while Louisa is making exciting plans, Kip finds himself facing challenges of his own and begins to learn that living the dream may not be as simple as he thought…

Sex/Life 44 Chapters about 4 men by BB Easton (£3.48 pbk)

One woman’s secret journal completely changes her marriage in this hilarious and biting memoir.

School psychologists aren’t supposed to write books about sex. Doing so would be considered ‘unethical’ and ‘a fireable offense’. Lucky for you, ethics was never my strong suit.

Sex/Life: 44 Chapters About 4 Men is a laugh-out-loud funny and brutally honest look at female sexuality, as told through the razor-sharp lens of domesticated bad girl BB Easton. No one and nothing is off limits as BB revisits the ex-boyfriends – a sadistic tattoo artist, a punk rock parolee, and a heavy metal bass player – that led her to finally find true love with a straight-laced, drop-dead-gorgeous . . . accountant.

After settling down and starting a family with her perfectly vanilla ‘husbot’, Ken, BB finds herself longing for the reckless passion she had in her youth. She begins to write about these escapades in a secret journal, just for fun, but when Ken starts to act out the words on the pages, BB realizes that she might have stumbled upon the holy grail of behaviour modification techniques.

The psychological dance that ensues is nothing short of hilarious as BB wields her journal like a blowtorch, trying to light a fire under her cold, distant partner. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but in the end, BB learns that the man she was trying so hard to change was perfect for her all along.

Muse by Ruth Millington (£7.49 hbk)

Meet the unexpected, overlooked and forgotten models of art history.

Who was Picasso’s ‘Weeping Woman’?
Why was Grace Jones covered in graffiti?
How did Francis Bacon meet the burglar who became his muse?

The perception of the muse is that of a passive, powerless model, at the mercy of an influential and older artist. But is this trope a romanticised myth? Far from posing silently, muses have brought emotional support, intellectual energy, career-changing creativity and practical help to artists.

Muse tells the true stories of the incredible muses who have inspired art history’s masterpieces. From Leonardo da Vinci’s studio to the covers of Vogue, art historian, critic and writer Ruth Millington uncovers the remarkable role of muses in some of art history’s most well-known and significant works. Delving into the real-life relationships that models have held with the artists who immortalised them, it will expose the influential and active part they have played and deconstruct reductive stereotypes, reframing the muse as a momentous and empowered agent of art history.

A Photo Finish by Elsie Silver (£5.50 pbk)

A small-town second chance romance from the bestselling author of Flawless and Wild Love.

I’ve seen every square inch of Violet Eaton’s delectable body and she has no idea who I am. Until now. What happened between us online, in our chats, was meant to stay anonymous and in the past. Until it didn’t.

It’s a small world, but Ruby Creek is even smaller. When I move to the tiny town, the grumpy facade I’ve created slips when we’re forced to live under the same roof. Every time her eyes flare with heat, every time she begs me not to stop, the ice I’ve encased myself in melts. She has me wanting things I can’t want – things I don’t deserve.

But my invisible wounds have the power to ruin us both. As a former soldier, I should have the discipline to walk away, but the more I open up to Violet, the more I want to keep her. I came back from the war a different man, but my scars are older and deeper than anyone knows – and I planned to keep it that way. I planned to keep my secrets hidden. Until her.

Pride and Privilege by Rachel Rowan (was free now £3.99)

When you’re stuck sharing a flat with a man known as Lecherous Dave to save money, you’ll do anything for a leg up at work—even if rumours say that requires cosying up to the boss’s son. Fortunately for admin assistant Poppy, he’s gorgeous. Unfortunately, she’s just drunkenly laughed in his face and accused him of tax avoidance. And she’s about to make it worse…

Roscoe Blackton has sacrificed sleep and sanity to land a senior role at London’s biggest wealth management firm. The fact his dad owns the whole company has nothing to do with it—or so he tells himself. But he can’t escape the whispers of nepotism, and his new assistant makes it horrifyingly clear everyone believes climbing him is the best way to climb the corporate ladder.

Desperate to prove he’s more than his background, Roscoe realises Poppy might have the answer—if they can ever recover from their disastrous first impressions. She could teach him how to live without privilege, while he can give her a true taste of luxury. But as their social experiment causes their personal lives to become hopelessly entangled, keeping things professional gets complicated.

He’s her boss. She’s his assistant. But they’re both adults. They know what they’re doing. And they’re definitely, absolutely, obviously not going to fall for each other…right?

There’s Something About Mira by Sonali Dev (free with Prime Amazon First Reads)

Mira Salvi has the perfect life—a job she loves, a fiancé everyone adores, and the secure future she’s always imagined for herself. Really, she hasn’t a thing to complain about, not even when she has to go on her engagement trip to New York alone.

While playing tourist in the city, Mira chances upon a lost ring, and her social media post to locate its owner goes viral. With everyone trying to claim the ring, only one person seems to want to find its owner as badly as Mira does: journalist Krish Hale. Brooding and arrogant, he will do anything to get to write this story.

As Krish and Mira reluctantly join forces and jump into the adventure of tracing the ring back to where it belongs, Mira begins to wonder if she is in the right place in her own life. She had to have found this ring for a reason…right? Maybe, like the owner of the lost ring, her happy ending hasn’t been written yet either.

The Art of Starting Over by Heidi McLaughlin (free with Prime Amazon First Reads)

In this journey from first love to second chances, New York Times bestselling author Heidi McLaughlin brings a single mom and a widower back home to renew the spark that will light their way forward.

Devorah Campbell’s life falls apart under the pressure of one truth: her husband is having an affair with her best friend. So Devorah packs up her daughter and their shared heartbreak for small-town Oyster Bay, where she grew up. Her relationship with her father is still on the rocks, but Devorah has her brother there—and, unexpectedly, her brother’s best friend.

Hayden McKenna lost his wife a year ago and has struggled with single fatherhood ever since. Moving back home with his son is a last but best resort, a chance to start fresh, surrounded by family and old friends. But when Hayden runs into Devorah, his childhood crush, sparks fly as bright as ever. If only he could make her see them too…

Amid a swirl of hurt and healing, Devorah and Hayden grow closer, rekindling what they had all those years ago to discover that, sometimes, a new start means going back to the beginning.

One on One by Jamie Harrow (99p)

Annie Radford swore she’d never work in college basketball again, but eight years after fleeing her job with the Ardwyn Tigers, she has no choice but to accept a role as the team’s hype woman and videographer.

Annie’s old friend and colleague, Ben Callahan, is as sexy and wholesome as ever, but why is he so determined to undermine her? Clearly, he hasn’t forgiven her for disappearing on him in senior year.

When Annie and Ben find themselves competing to keep their jobs, tensions rise and old feelings come sizzling to the surface.

With everything on the line, including their hearts, can they put their differences aside to work together and save the team? Or will the truth of why Annie left destroy their tentative new relationship . . . ?

Friend Me by Michelle McCraw (free)

Romance novels are my jam. And everyone knows the plucky assistant – that’s me – always charms the billionaire in an office romance.

Too bad Cooper Fallon has never read a romance novel.

If he had, he’d know that if you take a fake date to a wedding, you’re sure to fall for him. But I forget that when I take my work bestie, Tyler. In fact, after we dance, when he kisses me under the stars, I forget my own name.

But there’s no way I’m falling for my friend. Tyler is nerdy and gentle, lets me win at videogames, and gives magical foot rubs. He’d do anything for me. I won’t risk losing my best friend. Besides, Cooper is who I want. Isn’t he?

Be enchanted by this slow-burn-to-red-hot, friends-to-lovers, fake-relationship romantic comedy featuring a starry-eyed heroine, a sweet, cinnamon-roll hero, and a pair of cranky cats. Friend Me can be read as a standalone.

Speed Rail by Lainey Davis (free)

My life revolves around just one thing: my daughter. I don’t have the time or energy for anything else—not my foolish dream of an acting career and definitely not the annoying woman who opened a gym in the warehouse behind my garage.

Piper’s a menace to society, between her loud music, hurling weights around like a shot putter, and her building that is definitely not up to code.

Unfortunately, my kid thinks she’s the best thing since unlimited screen-time. It’s getting harder to avoid Piper when my daughter keeps going over there to ask about hair braids and sports teams.

Maybe I took things too far when I called the building inspector on Piper, but she can’t keep bringing clients into that fire hazard of a gym. And I can’t have her behind my house all the time, clad in spandex and making me think about things I have no business wishing for.

I’m done with relationships. Whatever I feel for Piper is passing. If I drive her away, I can get back to raising my daughter in peace. Anything else is just a pipe dream…

After Care by LB Dunbar (free)

When a sexy silver fox meets a breast cancer survivor on vacation, love might be just what the doctor ordered.

Cancer-free. Were there any sweeter words? Grateful for this second chance, I was ready to live, and the first celebratory step was a trip to Hawaii with my grown children. Two weeks to reconnect, reboot, and refresh. I hadn’t planned on the awakening adventure of meeting him—Tommy Carrigan.

Not Tom. Not Thomas. But Tommy, even in his mid-forties. His salt and pepper hair gave his age away, with the slightly longer locks curling at his neck in shimmery silver and black satin. My mouth dried when he looked in my direction. My cheeks heated. He wasn’t a young man, but all-male. His tight T-shirt showed off the sexiness of an older man—barrel chest, firm abs, confidence—leaving not much to the imagination. But my imagination ran rampant, as did my heart.

Falling in love with a former rock star might not have been on the doctor’s prescription pad, but this late in life, I wasn’t passing up the unexpected.

Only, what happens after the vacation ends?

The Tanglewood Bookshop by Lilac Mills (99p)

A rural book shop. A chance to start over. But can she make her dream a reality?

Kazz used to love the excitement of her London life, but lately her passion for expensive city living has begun to wane. So when she’s given the opportunity to open a bookshop in picturesque Tanglewood, she jumps at the chance.

But village life is much quieter than she anticipated – is she actually suited for rural living? Resigned to a boring and uneventful Christmas, when she meets gorgeous Saul she is more than ready to have some fun and enjoy the festivities. If only Saul didn’t have a reputation for being a player…

Will Kazz become the heroine in her own Christmas romance, or will he love her and leave her under the mistletoe?

Make Me Fall by Ember Leigh (free)

There’s one rule in my family. Stay away from the Daly brothers.

We were raised to know them as users. Manipulators. But I only ever saw Connor as the enigmatic senior hottie who dropped into fifth period to teach us about the perils of drunk driving. When my first big girl job out of college ends up with us working at the same company, it’s heart throb city all over again.

Except he’s way ahead of the game. Successful, talented, put together. I’m just a frumpy twenty-something in a quarter life crisis who doesn’t know a glue stick from a makeup highlighter.

He would never want me, even though he’s all I ever wanted in secret. So when we cross paths one night at the bar and one drink leads to another, he slaps me with an offer I can’t refuse. Accompany him back to Bayshore, flight included.

Only stipulation? Pose as his girlfriend.

Our families will flip, but I’m not strong enough to say no to those baby blues, especially if it means I’ll have a chance to go on vacation with my adolescent heart throb. We’ve got two weeks to prove we’re head over heels for each other. Which is just enough time to make me fall.

The Show by Lulu Moore (free)

As any true sports fan will tell you, once you have an allegiance to a team it’s set in stone. It’s unwavering. It’s finite. You never leave.
Yet somehow, I’ve been asked to do just that.
To set aside my love for The Yankees and take ownership of The New York Lions – the worst team in Major League Baseball.
Oh, yes, and turn them into winners.
An impossible job I don’t want, from a gift I couldn’t get a refund on.
But bring me a challenge and I will rise to it… Never, in all my thirty one years, have I shied away. And, technically, I still haven’t.
Because, technically, I haven’t accepted this particular challenge. Or two.
Enter Lowe Slater. The woman of my dreams. The woman I’ve loved from afar since I knew what love meant. My sister’s best friend and the one who’s been tasked to help me.
Twenty-five years I’ve kept Lowe at arm’s length. Now she’s everywhere I go.
I have a team to build and somehow I’m doing it with Lowe by my side.
The walls I’ve so carefully constructed are falling down brick by brick, and soon it’s not just the Commissioner’s Trophy at stake.
It’s my heart, too.

The False Flat by Melissa R Collings (99p)

In this uplifting story about friendship, love, and growth, one woman must untangle herself from a past that’s holding her back in order to move forward into the life that will set her free.

Penelope Auberge is at her breaking point. With an overbearing mother, a married boyfriend, and a boss who gives Pen’s high-profile finance clients to male colleagues, it feels like nothing she’s accomplished in her thirty-two years belongs to her.

Determined to build a life entirely her own, Pen moves from Minnesota to Tennessee to open a solo financial business. There, she meets siblings Deanna and Grant, who attempt to coax Pen out of her socially anxious shell. Hesitant to open up so she doesn’t get hurt (again), Pen is slow to develop a friendship with Deanna, and she’s determined to ignore her feelings for Grant, which is difficult given she’s joined his cycling group and a clear something begins blossoming between them.

Pen’s path in Nashville appears to be smoothing out, but she soon learns that packing up her past isn’t quite that easy. If she wants to start fresh, she’ll have to decide what she really wants—even if that means riding away from her old life for good.

The Reunion by Elizabeth Drummond (99p)

Two high school rivals. Ten years later. A vow not to fall in love . . .

School reunions: the perfect opportunity to catch up with old friends, dazzle old foes, and basically show everyone that your life could not be going better.

But for Lucas O’Rourke and Posy Edwins this isn’t quite the case. Lucas is about to lose his business, and Posy’s father has cut her off financially. And a reunion is the worst moment to come face-to-face with your rival. Ten years ago they hated each other, what could have changed since then?

As tensions rise, Posy comes up with a plan to solve both their problems, all she needs to do is persuade Lucas to go along with it. Trouble is, how do you ask your high school enemy to pretend you’re madly in love when everyone knows you don’t get along?

Our Last Summer by Jennifer Joyce (99p)

A summer that changed everything. A second chance to put things right.

Four years ago, Elodie Parker left the village of Little Heaton where she’d lived for her entire life. She hasn’t been back since.

Now, with her little sister’s wedding looming, she’s going home again. It should be a time for celebration, but there are things Elodie left behind she’s not ready to face. Not least the love of her life, Tomasz. The man who, if Elodie is really honest, she still loves.

But something magical happens on the flight. As turbulence hits, Elodie is thrown back into the past. It’s eight years ago, the day she met Tomasz for the very first time. Before everything went wrong and Elodie ran away forever.

Can Elodie find a way to change the past – and get the happy ever after she longs for?

Books Read

The Christmas Fix by Lucy Score

She’ll save Christmas just to spite him…

There’s only one thing standing in the way of Cat King saving a small town’s Christmas festival: Grumpy town manager Noah Yates.

Single dad Noah takes his responsibilities seriously. When a late season hurricane turns Merry, Connecticut, into a disaster, he’s left scrambling to pick up the pieces of the town he loves.

At least, until home renovation expert and smoking hot reality TV star Catalina King arrives with a camera crew and a budget big enough to put the town back together again. But Noah doesn’t want a celebrity diva capitalizing on their tragedy or filling his daughter’s head with visions of glitz and glam.

Blonde bombshell Cat is used to being underestimated, but Noah has an uncanny knack for getting under her skin. They can’t be in a room together without rubbing each other the wrong way…except that time in the dark alley where the rubbing was just right. Can these enemies work together to pull off a Christmas miracle or will their fighting leave them both on the naughty list?

War : Boston Bolts Hockey by Brittanee Nicole

I’ve never been a good bet.

I wear my emotions on my tattoo-covered sleeve, I say all the wrong things and I revel in pissing off a certain redhead far more than I should. In other words, I’m the last person the court would choose to parent any child, let alone three of them.

Yet being their father is all I want.

So when the woman I love to hate offers to help make all my dreams come true, I jump at the chance. Marrying Ava is a convenient solution: she’s my kids favorite person and the court will absolutely approve of the woman who runs the biggest charity in Boston.

But there is nothing convenient about the way I feel when she fights with me, or when we kiss. And I’m not sure which I enjoy more.

This marriage may have a time limit but I’m beginning to think I’d like to keep my wife. She’ll probably fight me on it, but as they say, all’s fair in love and war.

His Christmas List by TL Swan

Naughty stories for your stocking!
The annual collection of spicy Christmas short stories by T L Swan including two brand new stories! Available for a limited short time, this holiday season.

This year’s edition of His Christmas List features the following stories:

You Wish
Brunetti
The Expert
The Christmas Angel
Mr. Prescott
The Bonus
Alaskan Jack

The Bonus by TL Swan

Grace Porter has the perfect job, great pay, a beautiful office, everything she ever dreamed of, if not for one small detail.
She’s utterly and hopelessly in love with her boss.

Gabriel Ferrara is tall and handsome, and most days she wants to stab her eyes out with a pencil, anything to stop her seeing his perfection.
How any female could work in these conditions and not be completely besotted with him is beyond her.

Then he opens his mouth and she remembers why.
He’s bossy and sarcastic, with a wit so sharp it could cut glass.

Every weekend is the same . . . while he’s off living his dream life, she’s counting down the days until Monday when she sees him again.

But enough is enough.
Grace is tired of organising his glamorous and exciting life, instead of living her own.
Determined to find true happiness, she hands in her resignation.

Furious, he won’t accept it, and rages like never before.
Desperate to keep her, he offers her a Bonus . . . one she never saw coming.

Finally . . .
It’s Grace’s turn to be the boss.

The Verdict

Ooops! Well that was worse than even I’d anticipated. I can’t even say in my defence that the period covered more than a week as all of my purchases were made in the last 7 days. I did however spend some Christmas money but that only accounted for 3 of the 16 books. On the reading side I did read an additional book but it didn’t hit the spot for me so I’m not happy to recommend it, but please can I take that into account to make the figures look marginally better?