Lady M reads

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!

I’m a big Meghan Quinn fan, so I jumped on this mostly for her book. But when I looked at the other authors, I recognized a lot of names that I’ll finally check out. I’ve got so many books on my kindle, I wouldn’t be surprised if I already own some of these other authors! I keep saying I need to slow down, but then something like this comes out and I can’t say no! I love sports romance, and I’m a binger. I’ve been on a romantic comedy kick, so this will be a nice change of pace. This book is on deck. Can’t wait to dive in!

I don’t read a ton of YA (young adult) because I get annoyed sometimes at juvenile behavior and dialogue. But the author graciously sent me a copy and asked me to check out this book and leave a review. So I thought why not? I started it yesterday and struggled to get into it. Part of it maybe was just me being restless, part of it was the book had a lot of analogies in it. I think it would have been better had it gone through some more editing to get rid of some because it was almost constant. Everything was like something else instead of just letting us use our imagination maybe, I’m not quite sure specifically how I would change it besides just getting rid of some. Anyway I forced myself to power through, and I know that sounds really bad but it’s not, i promise. Once I got into the meat of the story I did have a hard time putting it down and I finished it probably 24 hours after I started it. I even surprised myself because there were a couple of scenes that got me choked up and I admit I cried a little. This is not your teenybopper young adult- nobody asked me to prom- kind of story. It is much more heavy and emotional. But I think it’s a fair representation of being a teenager now. Even when I was a teenager many years ago, I personally didn’t go through something quite so heavy but a friend went through something similar. They didn’t have quite as much as Shake had going on but it was a lot for anyone to deal with let alone a teenager. This reminded me of that. Even though it was a tough start for me, I’m very glad I stuck it out and finished it. Thank goodness there is a happy ending. For a while there I wasn’t sure how it was going to end because Shake and Cleo both had so much to deal with. They couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, even me as the reader couldn’t see it. This is the first book I read from this author, in fact I never heard of her until she messaged me about reading this book, so I will definitely check out and see what else she has out there.

I love Meghan Quinn’s and I love sports romance! I’ve heard of a lot of the other authors on this, but I think Meghan is the only one I’ve read before. This set is Part 2, but I never read part 1 (which means I have to look into that!). I didn’t discover some of these authors until recently, so it’s easy to see how the last one passed me by. Either way, this sounds so good, I can’t wait!

I’m really excited for her new release later this month! I love everything of hers I’ve read, I even PAID for books of hers I already read just because I loved them so much and wanted to have them to reread. So this new one is a romantic comedy, so not like anything if hers I’ve read, I seriously can’t wait! I’ve found a few more romantic comedy books lately so I’m sort of on a kick anyway.

She usually writes cowboy books (which I strangely love, even though I’d never cut it as a ranchers wife!) But this series ventures into wine making brothers. 3 books so far, Mr. Pink, Mr. White and recently released Mr. Red. Mr Whiskey will be the next. She, like many authors I like, write in one world. So even though the wine books are totally different, there are still connections to the cowboy series she writes. The Cowboys of Flint Hills, and also Hero’s of Flint Hills. I believe the first book is Prairie Passion. There’s so many now it’s getting harder to keep track!

I have a new imaginary crush. His name is Gavin, and he’s an amazing tattoo artist. He’s nothing like what I go for in real life, which is also common to the story. I got this book from Hidden Gems recently. And that’s a perfect title for this site. I have discovered so many great authors through them, it’s crazy. I blame them for my massive reading list!

I’ve heard of KC Decker before, probably from one of the fb groups I’m in, but just didn’t know anything about her (I wasn’t even sure she was a her!). But the description looked good, and I thought I’d try it. It was so good! It’s enemies to lovers, so there’s plenty of snark and smirks from me while reading. But there are some really sweet moments too, and a little life lesson for you. I haven’t figured out if this is part of a series or not, there’s quite a few supporting characters, so it makes me think there could be more books coming, but possibly not, since we know a few things about how the friends ended up. I however, wouldn’t mind still reading more of the friends detailed journey to their happily ever after, but that’s just because I enjoyed this book so much, I would love to get any more o can get from Gavin and Alabama. And yes, the female lead is named Alabama, it’s not a nickname! This book is currently on Kindle Unlimited, so if you’re a subscriber, it’s worth picking up for a fun read. Here’s a teeny bit of a spoiler though, the one thing this book is missing is the first “I love yous “. That is almost always my favorite part of any romance novel, and this didn’t have it! It killed me in this book because I’m reading scenes waiting and expecting it, and nothing. Big let down for me since I love those scenes so much. But other than that little thing, which may not even bother most people, I loved it.