Balancing the Books to 16th May – Jill’s Book Cafe

Books Added

Books Read

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

My write up will be short and sweet this week. Sadly, I’m coping with multiple family and friend issues that severely restrict my blogging time. So this week, it’s just a basic listing. All I will say is I enjoyed the ones I’ve read and look forward to reading my new purchases. Plus, hurrah for the balancing act!!

Books Added

Musical Games by Evie Alexander (99p)

He’s never been kissed, and she’s about to rock his world…

Bubbly actress Sam Adamson is this close to making it big – all she needs is one lucky break. But when she lands a meeting with Hollywood’s biggest star, she blows it by blurting out a lie.

Now, she’s got ten days to write an album with a man who wants absolutely nothing to do with her.

Unwillingly swept up in her grand plan is shy virgin Jamie MacDougall. He has the voice of an angel and the body of a god, but he’s never set foot outside Scotland – or his comfort zone – and fame is the last thing on his mind.

As the music flows, sparks fly. But when the limelight beckons, Sam’s about to discover that getting what she thinks she wants might mean losing what she really needs.

Mom Squad by Kaci Lane (free)

In a matter of minutes, I gained two kids, a house, a dog . . . and a hot doctor-farmer guy for a neighbor.

I never anticipated being a single mom, but I did expect to get pregnant first. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined taking custody of my niece and nephew, let alone moving back to my hometown.

Even more surprising is the guy living on the other side of my pond who could pass as a model for an outdoors catalog. Oh, and he’s a doctor.

Too bad he met me at my worst—barely dressed and several days past a shower, still holding the half-eaten cookie cake that sent me spiraling into a sugar coma. Of course, losing one’s sister and trading in a life of traveling the country for Apple Cart County could do that to a person. It did do it for me.

With my life in so much upheaval, the last thing I need is to fall for the guy next door. But he’s making it hard to resist with handsome smiles and helping around the property. And as an instant mama to a middle schooler and second grader stuck in the town I escaped almost a decade ago, I need all the help I can get.

Memory lane by Becky Wade (free)

After surviving a trauma several years back, Remy Reed relocated to a cottage on one of Maine’s most remote islands. She’s arranged her life just the way she wants it, spending her time working on her wood sculptures and soaking in the beauty of nature. It’s quiet and solitary—until the day she spots something bobbing in the ocean.

Her binoculars reveal the “something” to be a man, and he’s struggling to keep his head above water. She races out to save him and brings him into her home. He’s injured, which doesn’t detract from his handsomeness nor make him any easier to bear. He acts like a duke who’s misplaced his dukedom . . . expensive tastes, lazy charm, bossy ideas.

Remy would love nothing more than to return him to his people, but he has no recollection of his life prior to the moment she rescued him. Though she’s not interested in relationships other than the safe ones she’s already established, she begins to realize that he’s coming to depend on her.

Who is he? What happened that landed him in the Atlantic Ocean? And why is she drawn to him more and more as time goes by?

There’s no way to discover those answers except to walk beside him down memory lane.

Bourbon Promises by Walker Rose (free)

I left for a weekend in Las Vegas and came back with a husband.

Gideon James isn’t just any husband. He’s the wealthy CEO of a Vegas casino and hotel, he’s devastating in a suit—and he’s Bourbon Canyon, Montana’s very own prodigal son. Now he’s returning to claim the land my brothers are in the middle of purchasing from his father. With me at his side, Gideon will finally be able to stop the sale.

Why else would someone like him marry me? I may just be a small town schoolteacher one step away from cat lady status, but I’m not clueless. I know exactly why Gideon chased me into that all-night chapel. If he wants my help to sell this union and get his land, he’s going to have to give me something in return.

A baby.

Then we’ll go our separate ways.

Only the longer we’re under the same roof, the harder it is to remember our relationship is fake. The easier it is to forget there’s an end date on this contract. The plainer it is to see this marriage could be more than bourbon promises.

Books Read

Start Your Engines by Rebecca Chase

He’s hot, a legendary F1 driver, the man who ended my racing career and my brother’s best friend… and now he’s my only hope for survival.

Senna Coulter’s dreams of becoming a race car driver ended after a crash; now, she’s the head of her family’s failing Formula One team.

She’s determined to succeed, even when it means battling the people who think a woman in her twenties can’t be the boss in a male-dominated sport.

Her team’s only chance of survival is her brother’s best friend and her teen crush, Connor Dane. He’s also her team’s new arrogant hotshot driver.

Connor has carried the guilt of causing Senna’s crash for years. Being around Senna is torture especially with the secrets he’s hiding, but he promised her brother he’d protect her at all costs.

They begin the season at each other’s throats, but the undeniable spark between them means they surrender to their wants and cross a dangerous line.

It starts as a secret, steamy relationship, but as their feelings for each other intensify, it becomes harder to hide. So much is at stake: the team, their careers, their friendships, and their reputations.

But maybe it’s all worth it for love.

The Spice Play by Mia Mara

I spent the night with a complete stranger.
Now he thinks I’m a puck bunny.
So, imagine my shame when I find out he’s my new boss.
And I’m moving into his guest house… as his son’s nanny.

Okay, just because Atlanta Fire’s star center knows how to handle his stick doesn’t mean I’m going to let him out of the penalty box.

Sebastian Blue is a walking mistake in a hockey jersey.
Sinful smirk? You bet.
Dedicated single dad? Of course.
Relationship phobic? Just my luck.

But he’s eager to become my knight in shining skates…

When I need a fake date for my ex’s wedding (the same ex who told me I’m bad in bed), Seb is only too pleased to “prove the SOB wrong”—by teaching me just how good spice can be.

I’m trying not to lose my mind every time he kisses me like I’m his next big score, turning every steamy lesson into something that feels dangerously real.

And for a gal who can’t have kids of her own, this family is starting to feel like my home team.

So the question is, when the final buzzer sounds, will I still just be another move in his spice play—or something more?

The Car Share by Lucy Mitchell

After Lia’s old car breathes its last, the single mum must reluctantly take the bus to work . . . and face unwarranted attention from a troublesome teenager. It’s all too much to take—she’s been depressed since her fiancé’s death and even quit her beloved women’s football team. But it’s Happy Car Sharers to the rescue after her friends get her set up on the app.

Mateo, meanwhile, has recently moved to town, and his long walk to the train station is a literal pain due to an ankle injury. Soon he and Lia are riding each morning with a charmingly bossy driver and a rotation of colorful fellow passengers.

It’s not love at first sight. Technically it’s not even first sight: they’ve seen each other before at the nursing home where both their fathers live and Mateo plays piano for the residents. But with each trip they get to know each other better . . . and the more they know, the more they find to like.

With both of them consumed by personal losses and pressing family responsibilities—and another man getting in the way—can romance lie on the road ahead for these commuting companions?

Forever to Me by Erin Branscom

After a one-night stand with the town’s grumpy bar owner, I should have walked away. Instead, I stayed—and now I’m falling for the former country music legend hiding in Bridger Falls, Wyoming.

Walker was the last person I expected to end up with after leaving Nashville. But there he was, behind the bar, pouring whiskey, looking like sin in flannel, and making it way too easy to forget why I swore off love.

He’s done with music. I’m done with love. But when our pasts come knocking, and the whole town watches, pretending we’re nothing isn’t an option anymore.

Now, we’re tangled in lyrics and late-night kisses, chasing melodies and breaking every rule we swore to keep.

This was never supposed to be more than one night.

Some people belong to the past, but some are meant to be your forever.

The Verdict