Lady M reads

I just finished her latest that just came out today. Soooooo good! It’s the 8th book in the series, They Started With A Kiss. I’m pretty sure the first book is currently free. She is yet another author I discovered through Hidden Gems, and now am on her direct arc team. I seriously read almost nothing but arcs anymore, but when I look at my list, there’s no one I want to cut out! This is the best book so far in the series, which happens a lot. Once an author gets rolling in a series and gets to know her characters, each book is usually better than the last. Not to say the other books are inferior, but my cheeks seriously hurt from smiling so much through this one. And the sex scene, let me tell you, THIS is what other authors should inspire to write for sex scenes. Beautiful, meaningful, emotional scenes, not just for the act, but for what it means to the relationship. This was a sex scene with a purpose, not just for the sake of having it in the book. It was great, especially after reading so many clean romance lately, it was wonderful to have one so meaningful. Anyway (look at me posting twice in one week! ) this series is definitily one I recommend.

I’m not even sure where to begin with my review. First of all, this book was amazing! This is the first book I’ve read from this author, therefore the only book of the series I’ve read. I didn’t realize that it was book 5, the final book of the series until I got to the end. I got a copy through Hidden Gems to read for review, and I don’t know if it even told me that this was part of a series . So being as I had never read anything in the series before, I was surprisingly not lost. The end felt definitely like the end of a series though, and started losing me a little bit with details of I assume books 1 through 4. But it wrapped up in such a beautiful way, kind of like a TV series finale, when everything wraps up happy and perfect and exactly what you wanted. There’s basically three parts to this book, before, during, and after. The during and after kind of blend together, but there’s just so much to the story. It took a while for some important details to unfold, but unlike other books where you just want to get on with it, there were so many other side stories going on that you didn’t get antsy waiting for the reveal. You feel pretty much every emotion while reading, sometimes at the same time. There’s humor, sadness, regret; there are clutch your pearl moments, and several gasps in shock. Its friends to lovers and second chances. It’s half a lifetime all in one book. I hope my review is doing this book justice without giving anything away. It definitely makes me want to go back and read books 1 through 4, but just know if you stumbled across this one, you really don’t need to have read the first four, but I have a feeling it would make the ending all the more sweeter if you did.

I kept saying, I need to post more often. I even set up a reminder on my phone to post once a week. Guess who keeps dismissing the notification? I guess it’s partially my own fault for setting it for a Monday. Too much other stuff to start the week with. I’m going to have to change that, no seriously. And keep trying (and trying) to be more consistent with this.

It’s December so I can officially dive into reading all books Christmas, especially since I will only read them till New Year’s, then it’s time to file them away until next year. I’ve picked up a few new ones I hope to dig into soon. I have a couple more arc promises to finish up, then I get to read whatever I want!

This is just a schmorgasboard of topics, since I can’t keep up any better right now! I’ve read quite a few books since my last post (was it really back in October!?!). I’m in In a Facebook group that’s in a contest with a couple of other reader groups, so I know I’m fairly consistently reading around 5 books a week. So I’ve probably read around 20 in November! I think I mentioned the Laura Burton series I read. She is a new to me author, but I’ve been enjoying her books (Who Wants to Love a Billionaire is out today). There have been another couple of new ones from Kelly Collins, a new Aspen Cove story, and a new spin off series starting with Rescue Me. I love her Aspen Cove series, there’s probably around a dozen books in that series. I’m still working on Jessie Gussman’s Cowboys Don’t series.i think I’m 2 behind, the 2nd is a Christmas story, so I need to get on those. I’ve really enjoyed them, and I’ve listened to quite a few on audio too. I still prefer to read, since I have more time and can get through an ebook faster, but audio books are nice background noise for cleaning the house or time in the car. Thea Dawson is another clean author I’ve been reading. I’m working on As Needed by her right now. I think she has a new series coming next year that this book is connected to. Oh, I picked up a freebie last night by Kait Nolan, another Wishful book is free!

A Lot Like Christmas: A Small Town Southern Romance (Wishful Romance Book 11) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07J1L336G/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_i_ccD5DbSN2266N

I know I had to have read this one already, but reading the description I couldn’t remember. So it will definitely be one I read this month!

Oh, Jennifer Bramseth has a new book coming out next week. Hers is one of the arcs I’ve been working on lately. A Devilish Choice. It’s been such a good series! It’s so smart, and it’s not a romance, but there is some relationship stuff in it, but it’s more of the side story, not the main event.

That’s about all for now. Hopefully I read something really juicy to share with soon. I will have to post a list of all the holiday books or want to read this month. I guess that will be my next post!

I keep saying I’m not ready yet, but I’ve read a couple of Christmas books already. They were arcs, so I kinda had to. I mean, I could have taken a pass, but I went ahead and read them. As much as I hate Christmas starting so early, I started my shopping yesterday and am reading books, so I guess I should stop pretending I’m in denial.

I just finished an arc of Gifted by Ainsley St Claire, and Love Me Darling by Laura Burton. I liked Love Me Darling better between the two, but you’ll enjoy it better if you read the other books in the series first. Gifted was a spin off of the Venture Capitalist series, so there are overlapping characters and back story. She does mention quite a bit from the other series so it will help if you’ve read those other books. I liked the story itself, but I wasn’t too crazy about the sex scenes or how many there were. I think I’ve been reading too many clean books lately. So now I feel like sex scenes have to be really special for me to even care if their in there or not.

I’m sure I’ll have a few more on my list in the next 2 months!

I just finished this book, it doesn’t come out quite yet but I wanted to talk about it while it was still fresh. I’m about to gush hard on this book. It doesn’t come out until November 13th, so be ready. This is actually booked four in the series, but I have not read any other ones in the series to my knowledge because none of the characters or the backstory seemed familiar to me. It really didn’t matter, because I loved it. I literally laughed out loud – like snort laughed a couple of times- it was all fantastic. I mean, the author uses the term monkey sex more than once. How can you go wrong? Even the sex scene is good – it’s meaningful not just for the sake of having a sex scene. I hate when it’s too generic and robotic just insert part A into slot B. And means nothing but sex. There are some great lines in it throughout. I’ve started with this book actually, trying to highlight things that make me laugh, things I like, things I want to remember, because inevitably I forget. Sidetrack, I recently read a book where they made a comment about how this fixes everything like Windex does in that Greek movie. And for the life of me I cannot remember what book it was in, because of course I did not highlight it and have no clue now. Anyway, back to this one it was so good, not just funny but sweet and I even got misty. I really can’t say enough good about this book, or this author. I think this is only the second book of hers I’ve read, I just discovered her recently so I, when I have time, will have to go back and try and catch up on some of her other books.

I have to admit, I’ve been reading a lot more clean romance stories lately. I don’t know why, I guess I came across a few here and there, but I seem to be drawn to them more lately. I think, for the most part, what I’ve found are better written stories because there aren’t sex scenes and swearing that float them through. Hidden Gems introduced me to Jessie Gussman, and from there, I joined her email list and have really enjoyed her books. I may have come across some clean Facebook groups from her, I’m not sure. But I’ve been listening to several books from Lorena Hoopes as well. Both of these authors write clean, with religious aspects to them. Some more religious than others, sometimes it’s just a mention of praying, or going to church, others, it’s waiting to have sex until after marriage, and some flat out talk about being believers and getting a little more preachy. I’m not a fan of preachy, but I have liked the stories enough to keep going. Lorana Hoopes is more preachy than Jessie Gussman, if that makes a difference to you as as reader. From fb I’ve found quite a few other authors that I’ve been reading. Then there are some like Nancy Stopper that write not so clean romance under one name, then clean under another (Allie Kincaid). Which I find interesting, because I have come across other authors that write both under one name. Of course as I sit here writing this out, I’m blank on some of the other clean authors I’ve enjoyed. Marika Ray I believe is also one who has a clean series that were really good.

I did just finish Laura Burton and her Love Me series (Love Me Crazy, Sweetie, Dreamy, Darling.) Dreamy was a little out there, I guess it was considered mildly paranormal, which I NEVER read, but since I was reading the whole series on this, I went for it. Not a waste of time, but definitely unusual reading material for me. It was interesting because the first 3 books were not related at all, but the 4th tied it all together. The 4th was my favorite of the series, but they were all enjoyable. Definitely one of those you really should read in order.

Clean/Christian romance are for some, the only thing they read, but I’m sure I’m sure a lot of traditional romance readers usually shy away from them. But I encourage you to check one out, you might be surprised on how much you enjoy the stories.

I’m really and truly not ready for Christmas stories yet, since it’s still October, but this was another NetGalley book I picked up.

I really enjoyed the story overall but I have a couple of things to point out that are a little negative. First the positives. Since I read this in October, I’m glad it wasn’t overly Christmasy. Yes it took place over the holiday, but it wasn’t the main theme of the book. Second, I liked the slow pace of it. You got to know the characters, some of their background and why they were the way they were. This definitely had a feel to the second book of a series, with Cody’s brother being the first book, which does sound interesting. But it’s done in a way you don’t feel lost not having read it before, so that’s a plus. The negatives, the point of view seemed to change at random, in the middle of chapters with no warning. Too many times it took me a minute, confused when it changed from Lexi to Cody or vice versa. Also, there was an editing error (or two) the biggest 2 I noticed were in the 2nd sex scene. Lexi’s bra was removed twice, and there was a bit about condoms that didn’t make sense. Those weren’t major issues with the overall story, so I tried to not let them bug me too much. I don’t know if those things were corrected after I got my advanced copy or not, so it may be a non issue now anyway. I still need to check out any other books by this author, it was good enough that I would happily read more.

I loved Dirty Player so much I didn’t think I could love Dirty Secret more but I did! First – read Dirty Player (it’s free as I write this) then read Secret next. You don’t have to to enjoy this one, but you should- they’re both fantastic books. Vaughn and Natalie are so good together – chapters 24 and 25 are everything. I laughed out loud so many times, and smiled so much. Mira Lyn Kelly knocked it out of the park on the first I love yous I loved these scenes (in both books)so, so much. You seriously can’t go wrong with any of her books. I started with her Wedding Series, and those were just fantastic, the humor she puts out there is on point. Love is fun, you should be able to laugh! I loved that Natalie saw something in Vaughn no one else did, it made them so easy to root for!

I’ve read a few of her books before, May the Best Man Win, and Just This Once, and I know there’s another, but I can’t think of it right now. So I ended up getting on her ARC team recently. Dirty Secret is being released next week, and since that is next on my reading list, I decided to prepare by reading Hard Crush, and Dirty Player, since I guess they’re in the same world. There’s 3 books in that series, but I only own the first two, plus I only have so much time to get them all read! I have a couple other arcs due next week, so I don’t have too much time to read books just for the sake of reading. So these two are sort of homework, sort of pleasure reads. I liked Hard Crush, I finished last night. I’m about halfway through Dirty player now, and I like it a little better so far, because this one has made me laugh out loud a couple of times already. Looking forward to the next one too, more hockey! Mira Lyn Kelly is one of those authors that doesn’t write anything too far fetched, too make believe. Yes, Hard Crush stars an Uber rich dude, and Dirty Player is about a pro hockey player, and those aren’t everyday people, but their situations, their relationships all feel real. It may be less flashy, but it’s more relatable.

I keep saying I need to be more consistent, yet I haven’t posted in forever. I’m seriously going to set a reminder! Okay, I just took a minute and did. Every Monday I’ll try and post, what I read the previous week, what’s on my to be read list for the coming week – something!

I’m in a Facebook group in a contest with other reader groups for how many books we’ve read and listened to in a week. This week was a slower week for me, I read 4, listened to 1. I’ll probably get the current book I’m reading finished today, but at this point, I’ll just count it for next week. Do you set reading goals for yourself?

This week I read a Christmas book (as is my current read), even though it’s really too soon for me. I sign up for so many arcs, it is what it is. The next on my list is also Christmas, so I guess this is a normal time of year to roll them out, even though I’d personally wait until November.

I read a book by an author I’ve normaly enjoyed her series. Tracy Ewens, her “A Love Story” series. I read Play Book this week. Although I enjoyed the story itself, there were so many errors! I ended up having to deduct stars in my reviews because it was so bad. It was a sports romance, and several of the sports references were wrong. I’m sorry, but if you’re going to write about a sport, you need you need to know it. There was another error that wasn’t sports related, so it wasn’t just that. It was almost like it wasn’t edited. I’m not sure how people missed the flow of the days of the week being wrong.

Believe it or not, I genuinely feel bad giving bad reviews. Luckily most of the books I read specifically to review, I enjoy. But on occasion, I try out someone new and it’s just bad. Or sometimes in the case of Play Book, it’s just not the authors best work, it happens.

I’m off work the next week, so maybe I’ll finally get myself in a good habit here!