Books Added
Books Read
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I had an excellent bookish week this week, on both the acquisitions and reading front. Some fabulous freebies, in fact all bar one of this week’s additions were free. In the week that I posted about obtaining free books this served as a good example of just how fruitful that can sometimes be. My only actual purchase this week was Before the Swallows Come Back by Fiona Curnow, it’s not a book that has crossed my radar before, but the reviews suggested I’d be daft not to take advantage of the deal.
My other great piece of bookish good fortune this week was finally finding I was once again eligible for the current Kindle Unlimited offer. Kindle Unlimited as I’m sure most of you will know is Amazon’s subscription package which is normally £9.49 a month. Depending on what, and how much you read this is still a pretty good deal. However, the current sale offering is 99p for THREE MONTHS!!! I’ll be looking at this subscription in more detail as part of my Bargain Books features, but just let me say, for 99p, when it includes e-books and audio-books, don’t let this pass you by if you want to give it a try. If you have subscribed before, don’t be put off by the *new subscribers only proviso. It’s worth a click, I’ve been a subscriber numerous times and until this week always got the default message that I wasn’t eligible until I happily was!
My reading choices this week really hit the spot, and you’ll probably see at least one appearing in my end of year ‘best of’ post. I started with Off the Hook by Julie Olivia which was an interesting re-working of the Peter Pan story. Wendy finds herself reluctantly nannying for the local harbour Captain, who’s also the grumpy, reclusive older brother of her ex fiance Peter. An ex for very good reason, not least being because he was incapable of growing up – can you see the theme? Anyway, it was a different take and I was happily on board, we’ve already mentioned previously I’m a sucker for a single dad romance – or in this case single godfather (and I snuck in another later in the week just for good measure).
My next read was The One before the One by Emma Cooper and this is a must read. I was engrossed from the beginning as we meet Liv on her wedding morning. It’s a day she probably never envisaged given that the man she thought was the love of her life disappeared seven years ago, and this was her second chance at love. I can’t say anything without spoiling the plot, which incidentally, has the most perfect piece of misdirection I’ve read in a long time. Ignore the fact it has a sliding doors/time slip element – just go with it, you won’t be disappointed.
Well, my next read This Disaster Loves You by Richard Roper, had another missing partner, seems like buses, seven year absences all come at once. This was a more traditional then and now format which essentially in hindsight portrays the breakdown of a marriage that our left behind partner, Brian, was probably reluctant to acknowledge. It was a bittersweet read, with a great character in Tess, who involves herself in Brian’s search for his missing wife Lily. It has humour which balances the pathos and was another I loved. Happily, I’ve got another couple of books by this author already in my collection so I’ll be reading those sooner rather than later.
I thought I’d go lighter with my next choice, Baby Llama Drama by Kate Watson, it looked like a nice light rom-com – enter cancer, desertion and PCOS and perhaps it had more depth than the cover suggested. Though the cute daughter and added llama & goats helped lighten the mood when it might get a bit sombre. A timely reminder to all the romance naysayers that they’re not all frothy, insubstantial reads. It was still a palate cleanser after my previous two reads.
My final read, is one I’ve been waiting for Wild and Wrangled by Lyla Sage. the Kindle Unlimited offer came just at the right time as this was published on 15th and is part of the package. I’ve really enjoyed my previous outings to the Rebel Blue Ranch and sadly this is the last one. It was time for a hopefully happy ending for Dusty and Cam, the two remaining singletons that are part of the Rebel Blue family. They both have history as they were each others first love and despite 15 years of love, life and a baby in between then and now, that spark never dies for either of them. Give me a cowboy, a second chance and all the swoons and I’m in – a fitting goodbye to Rebel Blue. I’m now looking forward to what the author has up her sleeve going forward.
So that was my bookish week, I hope yours was as fruitful. As we’ve got a long weekend with it being Easter, I hope you have chocolate and books lined up to enjoy. Happy reading and Happy Easter!!
Books Added
Play With Me by Claire Wilder (free)
A shy librarian and a charming ex-tennis pro single dad come together in this steamy friends-to-lovers romance from USA Today bestseller Claire Wilder. With banter, steam, and a guaranteed Happily Ever After.
I’ve been in love with my best friend Jude Kelly—and his dark-haired mini-me son Cap—since the moment they walked into my library.
Jude thought I didn’t recognize him as the ex-tennis pro who’s now the big draw for his family’s luxury resort. I did.
He thought I was immune to his gorgeous smile and signature panty-melting wink. I wasn’t.
But my shy and frumpy corduroy was never going to be a match for Jude’s sweet and gorgeous charm—even if he did believe in love. Which he doesn’t.
That’s why I accepted a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do a college program in London. Two years with an ocean between us should help Jude and Cap find their best match. It should help heal my broken heart, too.
Except there’s just one thing keeping me from forgetting: that night I said I was leaving.
That night Jude Kelly kissed me.
Stay With Me by Brooke Montgomery (free)
A best friend’s brother stand-alone from small-town romance author Brooke Montgomery about a girl who falls pregnant by the wrong man and the cowboy who takes her in…
I’ve crushed on my best friend’s brother for years.
He’s a six-foot-three, dark-haired cowboy who works on his family’s ranch and sends butterflies to my stomach anytime he looks at me. But he’s never made a move, so I need to get over it.
Except, when he reads a text message about me liking a mysterious guy, he snaps and demands answers. Little does he know, it’s my code name for him.
When he finally confesses he likes me too, I find out I’m pregnant. With my ex-boyfriend’s baby.
After spending three weeks together in secret, my world turns upside down when that little white stick reveals a positive sign from the one-night stand I had before him.
Now everything’s a mess and my life’s spiraling out of control.
I can’t expect him to date me anymore, so I insist we return to being friends. The last thing he needs is a girl who’s carrying another man’s baby and about to be a first-time mom.
But when my apartment gets broken into, and there’s a suspected criminal on the loose, he insists I move in with him to keep me safe.
Staying platonic proves to be harder with each passing day as he goes with me to my appointments, takes me baby shopping, and stocks the kitchen with all my weird cravings. He’s so involved that everyone assumes he’s the father. And I don’t correct them.
But the truth always comes out in a Southern small town.
Penalty Box by Kayla Tirrell (free)
Silas broke Miriam’s heart two years ago.
Now he’s stuck in the penalty box.
Miriam loves working for the local professional arena soccer team. She’s gearing up for the Storm’s best season yet but the new lineup has one major problem—Silas Jenkins. The guy who broke her heart has returned, and she’ll have to play nice or risk losing her dream job.
Silas made the biggest mistake of his life two years ago when he signed with a rival soccer team in hopes of pushing his career to the next level. He realized too late that he left the love of his life behind. Now, he’s trying to make things right. But between adoring fans and teammates with a grudge, he’ll be lucky if Miriam gives him the time of day.
When Miriam and Silas are thrown together for outreach events, will old feelings be rekindled?
Or is Silas doomed to the penalty box forever?
Before the Swallows Come Back by Fiona Curnow (99p)
Perfect for fans of Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah, and Sal by Mik Kitson, with its celebration of the natural world, its misunderstood central characters living on the outside of society’s norms, their survival in the wilderness, and the ultimate fight for justice.
Tommy struggles with people, with communicating, preferring solitude, drifting off with nature. He is protected by his Scottish Tinker family who keep to the old ways. A way of life that is disappearing. A life of quiet seclusion under canvas is all that he knows.
Charlotte cares for her sickly father. She meets Tommy by the riverside and an unexpected friendship develops. Over the years it becomes something more, something crucial to both of them. But when tragedy strikes each family they are torn apart.
Charlotte is sent far away.
Tommy might have done something very bad.
Before the Swallows Come Back is a beautiful story of love, found family, and redemption that will break your heart and have it soaring time and time again as you sit, desperately hoping for the triumph of goodness over adversity. For justice.
The Love Theorem by Camilla Isley (free)
Are a rocket scientist and one of Hollywood’s brightest stars a match made in heaven or is it a catastrophe headed for a crash landing?
Lana loves four things: science, her cats, her friends, and her books. She’s on her way to earning her professorship when she finds out her long-term boyfriend has been sleeping with her best friend! That discovery has her hiding in the broom closet at a posh hotel.
Only, it turns out broom closets are the place to be these days.
Christian Slade, America’s sexiest man alive (as voted by fans), in a desperate attempt to escape the paparazzi finds himself in a broom closet with one sobbing occupant. Unable to leave a damsel in distress, he offers help, only to realise she has no idea who he is! It’s like he’s been given a gift. A smart, beautiful woman, who isn’t after him for fame and fortune . . .
Soon Christian is buying a Tesla to impress his scientist with his eco credentials and taking her on dates where no one will recognise him.
But as Christian falls in love he worries what will happen when Lana finds out who he is?
Burnout by Rebecca Jenshak (free)
He’s the hot, tattooed bad boy that I traded insults with…and now he wants my help?
Knox Holland is in a jam. After an incredible first year on the pro motocross circuit, he should be on top of the world. Instead, his bad reputation has landed him without a team. He’s untouchable and desperate to turn it around.
Which is how he ends up at my gym asking me to train him. As a college gymnast with two Olympic medals to my name, I know a thing or two about the pressure to succeed. Last season I choked and then injured myself before I could show the world that I’m not a twenty-year-old has-been.
Focused on the future, I can’t afford to get distracted. But I recognize the desperation in Knox’s eyes, and I can’t say no to him, either.
It should have been an easy task, but nothing about Knox is easy. One minute we’re arguing, and the next I’m enjoying his shirtless handstands a little too much.
Falling for him would be a mistake…
The Pearl of Penang by Clare Flynn
As World War Two looms closer, a young woman travels to a far-off tropical paradise on the promise of a new life, in this powerful and emotionally gripping love story.
Penang, 1939: As Evie steps off the boat, the tang of exotic scents in the air almost overwhelms her. Her heart beating wildly, she looks out over the lush landscape she will now call home, and prays she hasn’t made a terrible mistake.
What was she thinking, accepting a proposal of marriage from a man she met only once, years ago? The truth is, Douglas Barrington made an indelible impression on her, and Evie’s adventurous spirit couldn’t resist the chance to travel to this far-flung paradise to marry him. But as Evie adjusts to the sultry heat and explores the island, swimming in its cooling waters and learning who she can trust among the gossiping ex-pat crowd at the tennis club, she wonders why Douglas invited her here only to desert her? And why won’t he let her visit the plantation where he spends all his time?
Brushing away tears of frustration, Evie vows to find out the truth. But as she delves deeper, she’s shocked to discover the secrets her new husband is keeping from her. With war looming on the horizon, can Evie find the courage she so desperately needs to confront him? And will she ever be able to call Malaya her true home?
Tapping the Billionaire by Max Monroe
Georgia Cummings has zero luck with dating, and the era of the internet is not her friend.
In what alternate universe have men decided d*ck pics are a replacement for small talk and getting to know a girl? Seriously. One more crotch selfie and she might write men off for good.
Except her billionaire boss, Kline Brooks, might just be hot enough to make her reconsider. Dark hair, muscles for days, and a panty-dropping smile make him the quintessential bad boy. Only—he isn’t.
As an actual nice guy with a list of ethics a mile long, he knows a boss hooking up with his employee is never a good idea.
Too bad fate doesn’t give a you-know-what about his ethics.
Books Read
Off the Hook by Julie Olivia (owned e-book)
I need a nanny, but I may need her more.
I know about my reputation as Never Harbor’s secluded single dad. But I have everything I need: my imaginative son, my dog, and our remodeled cottage by the sea.
That is, until my nanny quits.
My brother’s ex-fiancee, Wendy Darling, is an elementary school teacher with a free summer. The last thing I need is to get tangled in his mess, but my family thinks she’s a perfect fit for the job. Turns out, she fits in better than I could have imagined.
Wendy is nothing like I expected. She’s kind and adventurous, with a beautiful laugh that washes my worst nightmares away. She pushes past my silence and sees more of my true self than anyone has in years. And my six-year-old son is falling for her just as quickly.
Being with Wendy can never happen. Not when my younger brother is her ex-fiance. Not when she’s so close to our family. Not when our small coastal town gossips the way that it does.
But after so long in the dark, Wendy makes me feel something. Falling for her feels a lot like flying instead.
I know happy endings only belong in fairy tales, but I’m close to stealing one for myself.
The One Before the One by Emma Cooper (borrowed via Prime Reading)
Liv is given the chance to live one life-changing week over, but can she change her future…? And does she want to?
When Liv’s boyfriend Kit disappeared on a hike, seven years earlier, she thought her life was over. But with the help of their family and friends, she’s pushed her way through the grief, and now, miraculously, she’s found a way to love again.
Until the morning of her wedding, when Liv steps through a doorway, and finds herself, somehow, back at the flat she shared with Kit: seven years earlier, six days before he left. Now, Liv has a chance to live those six days over, and change everything. If she gets this right, she can find out why Kit leaves and stop him.
But can she save him? And if she does, how will she choose, between the man she loved then, and the one she loves now?
This Disaster Loves You by Richard Roper (owned e-book)
Twenty years of love. Seven years of absence. One journey to find out what happened.
Brian’s wife, Lily, disappeared from his life without a trace six years, eleven months, one week, and two days ago, but Brian never lost hope. Since her disappearance their once beloved English pub—and Brian’s livelihood—has been crumbling piece by piece. As the anniversary of her absence approaches, Brian desperately needs a sign. One doom-scroll on his business’s reviews later, he finds it: an active TripAdvisor account for PinkMoonLily1972 that he knows in his heart is his Lily.
Interspliced with Brian’s journey to find Lily is the story of their love—how it started, and the twists and turns that brought them to this moment. As Brian jumps from one destination to the next to find Lily, and the truth behind their story comes into focus, Brian comes back to life with the help of Tess, a sarcastic, kind, and surprising traveling companion. But in order to move forward he’ll need to decide—stay in the past or take a chance on something unexpected.
Baby Llama Drama by Kate Watson (owned e-book)
Embittered single dad Duke has sworn off love forever.
Unfortunately, his daughter just met the mother of her dreams.
Millie:
I have it all. I work my dream job doing animal-assisted therapy, I live with the four best friends in history, and I own an actual pair of Louboutins. I should be content. Right?
Except, ever since an adorable toddler begged me to be her momma, I want more, and an insta-family is my only chance at motherhood. Unfortunately, her absurdly hot NFL star dad isn’t quite as enthusiastic about me as she is. In fact, if I didn’t know better, I’d think he was avoiding me.
At least until his nanny leaves abruptly mid season. Now, he’s knocking down my door, pleading with me to help watch the little girl I’ve already fallen in love with.
And the more he knocks, the more I’m in danger of falling for him, too.
Duke:
Never get married. Seriously, people, don’t do it.
If you never get married, your influencer wife can’t abandon you and your baby during the middle of your cancer treatments. It doesn’t matter that you kick cancer’s butt or come back to the NFL stronger than ever.
Love is for suckers.
Which is why meeting the intriguing, far too intuitive Millie Campbell is so frustrating. Isn’t it enough that she’s drop dead gorgeous? Does she also have to be the mother of my daughter’s dreams?
Love is a brutal sport, and I have no intention of playing it ever again. But if I do get back in the game, Millie needs to know one thing:
I play for keeps.
Wild and Wrangled by Lyla Sage (borrowed via Kindle Unlimited)
She’s the one that got away. He’s the one that never let go.
Single mother Camille Ashwood loves a plan. But when her latest backfires, she finds herself abandoned at the altar with nowhere to live. That is, until she discovers her dream house in her hometown is available. There’s just one problem . . . the neighbour.
Dusty Tucker has spent nearly all of his adult life running from his feelings for Cam. But since returning home, the girl who was his first, well, everything has become a woman seemingly determined to keep him at arm’s length . . .
But despite Cam’s best efforts to stay away, she finds herself increasingly drawn to Dusty. And as past wounds open and feelings – both old and new – wreak havoc, Cam and Dusty begin to wonder if their first love was meant to be their last. And this time, will it be forever?
The Verdict
| Books Purchased | 8 |
| Books Read | 5 |
| Imbalance | 3 |
| Balance brought forward | 26.74 |
| Weekly budget | 10.00 |
| Total Spent (including 3 Months Kindle Unlimited) | 01.98 |
| Balance carried forward | 34.76 |
