Reason to Believe was the perfect weekend read. Perfect. I was immediately interested in the story of Knox and Harper and their "forbidden" love story. I appreciated that Yarros gave us a little of their history so that we understood why Knox was so insistent on avoiding his feelings for her but then she immediately put us in present day and plunged us right into the conundrum they found themselves in--she's in his space with two small children--and their inability to resist each other for long. While I tried really hard to appreciate Knox's loyalty to Harper's brother, I was so glad that he decided to sort himself out because there was absolutely no denying that they loved and needed each other--things they freely admitted, even when they hadn't yet made the leap to trying to have a real relationship. Once he figured things out, the transition from friends to lovers was only slightly angsty and so very rewarding. Also rewarding was the very realistic storyline of the boys Harper and Knox agreed to foster. Having a close friend who is living through this process, I really appreciated the attention to detail and the emotion of it all; it all felt very real and hit close to home. Added to all of this, the story of the hot shots and their ongoing journey to get certified and following them as they train and also fight fires, kept the pages flying. All three of these plot points-the romance, fostering, and the hot shots--blended well and held my attention so much so that I don't think I put my kindle down as I was reading.
This is the first full length novel in this series--there are two novella length reads that have come before and I'll most definitely be circling back to those in anticipation of more of the Legacy Series to come. Reason to Believe is a quick, romantic, five star read.
Blurb:“I’ll take them!”That’s what I tell the social worker when my pre-k student and his baby brother need an emergency foster placement. I’ll do anything to keep the brothers from being split up. But my apartment’s flooded and there’s only one house I can take them to on such short notice…his.Knox Daniels, my older brother’s best friend, offers his new place without hesitation. He’s not moving back to our tiny town until next month—that’s when all our hotshot firefighters are returning for their one and only chance to rebuild our fathers’ fallen, iconic crew.It doesn’t matter that I’ve been silently in love with Knox since we were kids. It can’t matter that we pretend that reckless prom night kiss never happened. It won’t matter that my feelings for him could destroy his lifelong friendship with my brother and threaten the certification of their hotshot crew. Because I’ll be out of his house long before he gets back.Except Knox just walked in…a month early. And the icing on this awkward cake? He’s gorgeous as always and I’m covered in baby puke. He takes one look at the boys and tells me we can make this work—We can temporarily fake a relationship to keep them from being separated by the system.Suddenly, everything matters.
About the Author:Rebecca Yarros is the Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of over fifteen novels, including Great and Precious Things and The Last Letter. “A gifted storyteller” (Kirkus), she is also the recipient of the Colorado Romance Writer’s Award of Excellence for Eyes Turned Skyward from her Flight and Glory series.Rebecca loves military heroes and has been blissfully married to hers for almost twenty years. She’s the mother of six children, ranging from kindergarten to law school, and is currently surviving the teenage years with three of her four hockey-playing sons. When she’s not writing, you can find her at the hockey rink or sneaking in some guitar time while guzzling coffee. She and her family live in Colorado with their stubborn English bulldogs, two feisty chinchillas, and a Maine Coon kitten named Artemis, who rules them all.Having fostered then adopted their youngest daughter who is nonverbal and on the autism spectrum, Rebecca is passionate about helping children in the foster system through her nonprofit, One October, which she co-founded with her husband in 2019. To learn more about their mission to better the lives of kids in foster care, visitwww.oneoctober.org.To catch up on Rebecca’s latest releases and upcoming novels, including The Things We Leave Unfinished, which just received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, visitwww.RebeccaYarros.com.
The Adair Family Series has been quite the roller coaster ride, which Always You continues. In this novel, we get the story that's been hinted at for quite a while--the story of Robyn's dad and Lachlan's sister, Mac and Arro. These two have a long and somewhat tortured past together and a large part of this novel is devoted to giving us that backstory and unpacking all of the emotions and feelings that are tangled in. There's quite a lot of angst and back and forth between these two and you just can't help but feel for both of them--they're both carrying around some hefty feelings. As with the other novels in this series, we're grappling with their complicated love story and a threat that hangs over their heads, to keep us all on our toes. This novel also gives us more of a look of the two brothers who've been only been mentioned in passing and a hint of the love and drama coming.
If you're looking for a series that showcases a strong family connection, complicated and enduring love stories, and the threat from a mysterious force or presence, you'll definitely want to look into all of these novels, starting with the first.
Always You by Samantha Young is now live!
Arrochar Adair has loved her brother's ex-bodyguard and best friend, Mac Galbraith, for years. Once upon a time, she was too young for him, but now that she's a mature woman in her thirties, Arro can see no issue with their difference in age. Yet something deeper, a problem much more difficult to surmount, is keeping them apart.
Mac Galbraith remembers clearly the night Arro became everything to him, no longer just his best friend and boss's younger sister. However, having made many mistakes over the years, there is one mistake Mac is determined not to make: to believe that he is worthy of Arrochar Adair. Allowing them to grow closer during his daughter, Robyn's, return has proven his undoing. And when Arro forces the subject of their relationship, his response pushes her away. He just never meant for it to destroy them completely.
Devastated by Mac's final rejection, Arro is determined to move on without him in her life, though he seems intent on staying put. And when the Adair family face a new threat, one that may have ties to Mac's past, Arro can't seem to be rid of the man. In fact, Mac will do anything to protect her.
But with so much hurt between them, will Arro let Mac close enough to guard her from their enemy... before it's too late?
Download today on Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo!
Samantha Young is a New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. She's been nominated for several Goodreads Choice Awards. Samantha writes adult contemporary and paranormal romance, YA urban fantasy and YA contemporary fiction and is currently published in 31 countries.
Ten Trends to Seduce Your Bestfriend, an all-new enemies to lovers romantic comedy from New York Times bestselling author Penny Reid, is now live!
OUR REVIEW:
Winnie and Byron have got to be two of the most delightfully frustrating characters I've read in a while, which makes them the perfect candidates for a frienemies to lovers plot twist. Truly. These two are both a hot mess and I think it's fair to say that for a minute I wasn't sure if I liked either one of them because they frustrated me so. But, as I got to know them and understand them, I watched them like I'd watch a tennis match--avidly watching them go back and forth with each other and themselves as they tried to find their footing in their unusual, initially tentative, relationship. It was entertaining sport, especially as a bystander. Having the benefit of knowing a little more than each of the characters knew about each other made their struggles to figure things out a little less painful and a little easier to take...though, admittedly, I wanted to strangle them at different points in the novel.
As I've come to expect and enjoy from Penny Reid, she tortured her characters (and us) to just the right nth degree and then put us out of our misery in a way that had me smiling, happy, and satisfied at the end.
And, I can't end this review without also extolling her choices of having a STEM female protagonist, having Byron be the one seriously pining throughout the whole novel (with Winnie being the one clueless about it for quite a while), and addressing some things with both characters that I thought needed to be addressed--no spoilers here, just know that the things that may frustrate you about these two get some discussion and acknowledgment by the end.
Unexpected and refreshing and feeling happy about my latest dose of Penny Reid! (Also as a teacher, thank you so much for doing us justice!)
Winnifred Gobaldi and Byron Visser are not best friends.
Yes, they’ve known each other for years, but they’re not even friendly. Winnie considers them more like casual, distant acquaintances who find each other barely tolerable, especially when he's being condescending (which is all the time).
The truth is, they have nothing in common. She’s a public school science teacher with stars in her eyes, and he’s a pretentious, joyless double PhD turned world-famous bestselling fiction author. She loves sharing her passion for promulgating women in STEM careers and building community via social media, and he eschews all socialization, virtual or otherwise. She’s looking for a side hustle to help pay down a mountain of student debt, and his financial portfolio is the stuff of fiduciary wet dreams. So why are they faking a #bestfriend relationship for millions of online spectators?
When a simple case of tit-for-tat trends between nonfriends leads to a wholly unexpected kind of pretend, nothing is simple. Sometimes, it takes a public audience to reveal the truth of private feelings, and rarely—very rarely—you should believe what you see online.
Ten Trends to Seduce Your Bestfriend is a full-length, complete standalone, adult contemporary romantic comedy.
Fall in love today! Amazon US: https://amzn.to/3EV4yPv Amazon Worldwide: http://mybook.to/TenTrends Apple Books: https://apple.co/3HzF78e Nook: https://bit.ly/3sTANME Kobo: https://bit.ly/3ERL4LU Google Play: https://bit.ly/3mOvjPp Smashwords: https://bit.ly/3mUOffH
Add Ten Trends to Seduce Your Bestfriend Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3FT90Q6
Meet Penny Reid Penny Reid is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of the Winston Brothers and Knitting in the City series. She used to spend her days writing federal grant proposals as a biomedical researcher, but now she writes kissing books. Penny is an obsessive knitter and manages the #OwnVoices-focused mentorship incubator / publishing imprint, Smartypants Romance. She lives in Seattle Washington with her husband, three kids, and dog named Hazel.
What chance does a small-town girl have with a world-famous rock star?
Famous in a Small Town, the all-new rock-star-next-door romance, from New York Times bestselling author Kylie Scott, is out now!
OUR REVIEW:
If you know us, you know that we love Kyle Scott's novels and so I eagerly started Famous in a Small Town as soon as it appeared on my Kindle and I don't think I put it down until I finished. This novel was the perfect balance of humor and romance. Ani, our heroine, had some of the funniest inner monologues I've read in a while and her fellow townspeople were equally funny. I also loved how much she loved her town and wanted it to be the best small town it could be. Garrett, on the other hand, is broody, understandably so, considering, and he's also wonderful. The more you get to know him, the more you see how protective and kind he is...and how he, too, wants the best for his new town. Together they make a great team for the town.
Famous in a Small Town is a whirlwind romance, filled with funny characters and a fast paced plot that will have you turning pages, only to be sad when you get to the end (and, of course, hope that there are more companion novels to come).
Two years after his wife’s death, rock star Garrett Hayes hasn’t moved on. But he has moved out of L.A. Where better to escape his past than a small town in the northern California mountains? If only he could get the townsfolk of Wildwood to leave him the hell alone.
Ani Bennet returned to her hometown for some much-needed serenity. The last thing she needs is a grumpy, too hot for his own good, rich and famous rock star living next door—and rent-free in her brain.
She set her fangirl tendencies aside and deleted his photo from her cell when they became neighbors. But when Garrett asks for help, she can’t say no. The problem is, spending time together is making those fangirl feelings resurface—and bringing them to a whole new level.
What chance does a small-town girl have with a world-famous rock star? It’s time for Ani to set her fears aside and find out.
My new neighbor arrived at midnight on a Thursday. First came the moving truck, followed by a Jeep Wrangler. Mrs. Cooper, the former owner of the house, passed a while back. A damn shame. The woman was not only nice, but she made biscuits like you wouldn’t believe. For years the grand old Victorian house sat empty at the end of the cul-de-sac. Not unusual for a small town. Few people wanted to move to the middle of nowhere in Northern California, no matter how picturesque it might be. While the place had been sold not long after listing, there’d been no sighting of the new owner until now. “What the heck?” I mumbled to myself, standing at the window. Who moved in the middle of the night? It seemed covert and suspicious. Like something a criminal or government agent would do. Although, maybe they just traveled far and this happened to be the time they arrived. But most people would stay at a hotel and wait for daylight to do this sort of thing. Surely. The only things ever happening at midnight in Wildwood were: 1. Harry, the town drunk, performing Bob Dylan classics in the middle of Main Street. 2. Me, an insomniac, wandering aimlessly around my house. That was it. Everyone else in the whole wide world—or our corner of it—was fast asleep. Half hidden behind a curtain, I watched the truck being unloaded. A full moon shone down through the pine trees as the moving men hauled stuff inside. The first guy, the one who drove the Jeep, went straight into the house. He was tall and wore a ball cap. That was about all I could see. Maybe he was setting the place up for his wife and family. Maybe he had a boyfriend. He couldn’t possibly be single, heterosexual, under sixty, and emotionally mature. My luck just wasn’t that good. Not that I intended to date again in this lifetime. Whoever he was and whatever he was doing, it would all be known in due course. Such was the joy of small-town life. Once the furniture was moved inside, things got a little dull. There’s not much you can tell about a person from their boxes. I took the opportunity to once again check the locks on all my windows and doors. After that, I made a cup of chamomile tea. Neither of these things helped me sleep, but the rituals were soothing. Mom always said I had a busy mind. I didn’t necessarily think about anything useful, I just thought a lot. At night, I tended to think about books, bad memories, and ex-boyfriends. The last two were often one and the same. As a child, I was the daydreamer who got busted humming in class when everyone else was concentrating. (Like anybody actually needed algebra. If you can work out the discount at a sale, you’re good to go. Then again, this attitude might explain why my life had gone approximately nowhere.) I returned to the window just in time to see my mystery man reappear. The new neighbor strode out to the Jeep and opened up the back. When he once more headed toward the house, the ball cap was gone and his short hair was on display. In each hand he carried a guitar case. I perked up. Musicians were cool. Unless he owned electric guitars and believed in turning the volume up to eleven. That could get old fast. As he got closer to the house, the porchlight hit him and…huh. Something about his profile tugged at a memory. Guess he felt my gaze, because he turned toward my place. And whoa. His lips were a thin line, his jaw set to cranky, and none of it mattered—the man was beautiful. Though he really was strangely familiar. Meanwhile, with only a lamp on behind me, I couldn’t have been more than an outline. A shadowy person lurking in the dark. Great. Nothing like being spied on to make you feel welcome in your new neighborhood. So much better than a casserole or cookies. Wait! I knew where I recognized him from. Only it couldn’t be, because that would be crazy. Absolutely fucking wild. Yet there he stood. “Holy shit,” I whispered. My new neighbor was a goddamn rock star.
About Kylie Scott Kylie is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author. She was voted Australian Romance Writer of the year, 2013, 2014 & 2018, by the Australian Romance Writer’s Association and her books have been translated into eleven different languages. She is a long time fan of romance, rock music, and B-grade horror films. Based in Queensland, Australia with her two children and husband, she reads, writes and never dithers around on the internet.
