Oh, the problems of being a handsome, wealthy duke. Silvester has to get married and decides that the one woman for him is Yasmin, the beautiful, but scandalous, toast of the season. His wise mother advises him that she’s not for him and the woman who has the most strength of character is Stella. Apparently, Stella has demonstrated that by refusing to not wear her glasses as other young lady might to put up a false facade of perfection. Well, of course Stella is the exactly right woman for him and Silvester comes to realize this and, in the way of romance novels, Stella becomes more and more attractive to him as he falls for her. Add in a marriage of convenience that soon turns quite passionate. I had read the earlier book about Yasmin’s romance which is contemporaneous with the plot of this book. I hadn’t remembered much of that book, but it didn’t end up mattering much. If you don’t like a plot where the hero is attracted to another woman for the earlier parts of the book, you can read and enjoy this story. I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book that I received from Netgalley; however, the opinions are my own and I did not receive any compensation for my review.

I Flipping Love You by Helena Hunting

This book was so much fun! It had the right mix of hotness along with character and plot development. It is always a pleasure when an author writes dialogue that is both witty as well as capturing why two characters are attracted to each other. Too often we’re told they talked and liked each other, but not shown what it is that they said because the author is not talented enough to write the sort of dialogue that we’re being told happened. Not in this book.

Rian meets the hot and wealthy Pierce in a grocery store. He’s immediately attracted to her and enjoys setting her off just to see her give him sass right back. He goes after her and she turns him down several times despite being attracted to him. But, as they get to know one another (and have hot sex together) she comes to realize that he’s more than the sexy, arrogant, rich guy in the Hamptons that she thinks he is. Well, he’s all that, but he is also just a really nice guy. Sure, he’s arrogant especially as he goes after, but it’s sexy on him.

Rian has her own family history that she’s hiding from him, but we know already that Pierce is basically a good guy so it will all come right in the end. And we’ll have fun flipping for Pierce and this book as the story goes on.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book that I received from Netgalley; however, the opinions are my own and I did not receive any compensation for my review.

Too Scot to Handle by Grace Burrowes

I always enjoy Grace Burrowes’ writing. She has intelligent and decent characters who actually talk to each other. Too often in romances, we’re told that a couple had a long conversation and grew closer. But we don’t get to read more than a couple of sentences from that conversation. We just have to take the author’s word for it that they bonded over that conversation. Burrowes actually gives us that dialogue. We can understand why these two fell for each other and see what connects them. We can read Colin’s respect for Anwen as a person instead of being told that he feels it.

The plotline in Too Scot to Handle isn’t all that extraordinary. Colin MacHugh is hanging around in London to accompany his sisters while his brother, a newly-made duke is on his honeymoon. Colin is tired of the phony sorts of London women who are suddenly attracted to him because his brother is a duke and he runs a profitable distillery, but don’t give a hoot about him personally. The one woman who interests him is the sister of his brother’s new wife Anwen Windham. She might appear quiet and demure in public, but he senses that there is a lot more to her.

Anwen isn’t interested in the London bachelors who are interested only in her dowry. Sensing a pattern here? Her main interest is finding funding for the orphan’s home of the most adorable young boys that she sponsors and that is running out of money. Colin is interested in her so he helps with the boys and the House of Urchins.

Colin and Anwen quickly fall for each other and are perfectly matched. The only tension in the plot comes in the last quarter of the book regarding Colin’s selfish friend and Anwen’s selfish friend. You can see how closely these two resemble each other and how well suited they are just from this description. Some people might object to the lack of conflict separating the lovers and minimal barrier that they have to overcome. I didn’t mind that because the fun of the book is Burrowes’ fine writing and the delightful conversations.

I was given a free ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Whole Man by C.F. Rose

The Whole Man was a pleasant read about two wounded people trying to get beyond their personal hang-ups to fight through on a second chance at love. Evan O’Cleary and Jesse Walsh had met and had a passionate two-day love affair. Jesse was a rising baseball player just about to make it to the majors when a family tragedy tore him apart and he abruptly abandoned Evan. He still hasn't recovered from that loss. She went on to fall into an abusive relationship from which she has just recently fled back to Southern California. There she encounters Jesse who had abandoned his chance at a major-league career in order to be a high school baseball coach.

Evan and Jesse are still very attracted to each other, but they blow hot and cold with each other. First Jesse doesn’t feel ready for a serious relationship. Then Evan finds out a highly suspicious coincidental connection between Jesse’s father and her mother. So then she isn’t ready for a serious relationship. It gets a bit irritating as each trade off on who is more insecure about getting serious beyond a bit of sex.

There’s a subplot of Evan getting ominous messages from her abusive ex that have her broken down in fear and asking Jesse to come over to her house because she is so scared. Being a good guy, he’s quick to oblige her. Then that plotline is put aside for some of their personal angst and she’ll go from unable to go home alone one night to going a few weeks without needing her own personal bodyguard. It just seems rather convenient how her fears appear and disappear. I thought that whole plotline seemed rather weak. And (SPOILER ALERT) then when her ex shows up, as you know he will, it’s all rather meh as a suspenseful moment.

What I enjoyed the most was the relationship each major character had with their friends and family members. If there are going to be follow-up books about Evan’s and Jesse’s brothers, I’d be interested in reading them.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Stripped Bare by Heidi McLaughlin

Stripped Bare is basically a Cinderella story mixed in with some erotica and real pathos. The heroine is Macey who got pregnant at 17 and has had to raise her beloved daughter in terrible circumstances living with her drug addict mother. To make ends meet she works as a waitress by day and stripper at night in a seedy strip bar. Even with the two jobs, she’s barely making ends meet so she decides to travel to Las Vegas where she’s heard that a stripper can make a few thousand dollars in one week. Leaving her daughter with the ever-helpful best friend, she heads off to Sin City.

Needless to say, things don’t go quite as planned and she ends up losing all her money. Because desperation and playing for high stakes in a casino are never are a good mix. She gets noticed by the owner of the casino, Finn, who recognizes her for a girl he had a one-night stand with in high school. He is still irresistibly attracted to her and offers her $30,000 to spend the week with him and be his escort for a few fancy fundraisers. He buys her a new wardrobe and puts her up in his amazing penthouse apartment.

And then they have sex all the time. The book is told with shifting narrations and Finn’s narration is mostly about how he wants to have sex with her in every location in his enormous apartment. While Macey is a bit sarcastic with him, she still can’t help succumbing to his massive sex appeal every time he touches her.

Add in an evil ex of Finn’s, Macey’s adorable 10-year old daughter, a miracle-working security/does everything aide of Finn’s and you have a very readable novel. The author was especially good at portraying the dreary filthiness of the life of a low-class stripper.

There are a couple of twists in the plot that aren’t all that surprising, but I still found myself staying up late to read until the end.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wrecking Ball by P. Dangelico

I really enjoyed Wrecking Ball by P. Dangelico. The plot combines several rather well-worn tropes from the pantheon of romance novels, but I still was interested and involved enough to stay up late finishing the novel. Cam DeSantis is the widow of a man who created a ponzi scheme and defrauded a lot of people out of their earnings. Ever since Bernie Madoff, I’ve seen this trope quite a few times with a woman having to recover from the damage her husband or father had done. I guess it’s a good way to make the heroine have to start over without money or a job or reputation. Because, of course, she got fired from her job as a third-grade teacher and can’t find another job. I rather suspect it wouldn’t be that hard for an experienced teacher to find a new job, but we’re supposed to believe that, even by using her maiden name, people will recognize her anywhere she goes and start yelling her. Does anyone think they could pick Bernie Madoff’s wife or children out of a lineup? I seriously doubt it, but roll with that.

She needs to make money to pay her parents back for emptying their savings to pay for a lawyer to defend her from suspicions of having known about her husband’s fraud. So she ends up taking the job as nanny/home-school teacher to the sad nephew of the New York team’s star quarterback. Poor Sam has been left with his uncle, whom he barely knows, while his mother is in drug rehab. His uncle, Calvin Shaw, is a superstar, Super-Bowl winning quarterback. Think of a Tom Brady type complete with all the health food fetishes.

Of course, he is attracted to his hot nanny. And she’s attracted to him. And she helps to bring the reclusive superstar closer together with his shy nephew. And she gets him to quickly abandon his health food diet.

She ends up agreeing to act as his fake-girlfriend to help protect him from all the groupies. Did I mention that there are a lot of tropes in this novel? These aren’t all, but I don’t want to provide too many spoilers.

What I liked best was that Cam is not quite the typical heroine-in-distress for a romance novel. She’s a spunky New Jersey girl and she doesn’t take any garbage from Calvin even though he’s a multi-millionaire. She has a great relationship with her parents and her best friend.

This is be set up to be the first in a series and I’d definitely read the rest in the series. There were quite a few typos and grammatical mistakes in the review copy, but I’ll assume those will be cleaned up by the time the book is published.

I received a free ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wild Kisses by Skye Jordan

Wild Kisses features a romance between two hard-working and dedicated people who have each suffered in the past. Trace Hutton is a contractor trying to build a business after having served three years hard time for buying a few illegal prescription drugs (which seems like a harsh sentence for a first offender) while taking care of his father who suffers from dementia. He’s renovating a former bar for Avery Hart who has returned to the town of Wildwood after eight years of an unsatisfying marriage to an army soldier. She’s pouring everything into building a bakery and cafe business.

Each of them is working long hours to build up their businesses and have a lot to lose professionally and financially if their gambles on themselves don’t pay off. Avery seems to spend all her time baking innumerable incredible sweets that she’s selling and giving away all over town. I found it hard to believe that she could bake such a variety of goods in the tiny apartment kitchen that is described. She doesn’t just make two or three sweets in an assortment, but makes eight or nine plus a whole other assortment that she sells in a local grocery. I found myself getting distracted by trying to compute how much time it would take to make all those desserts in any one day. No wonder she’s exhausted and day-dreaming about hot sex.

They’re both deeply attracted to each other but worry that the time isn’t right for a romance. Trace worries that he’s not good enough for such a sweetheart as Avery. Avery worries that she’s not experienced enough for such a good-looking player as Trace. Of course, they eventually succumb to their sexual attraction and have some hot sex. And then some more.

There is a sense of threatening doom as we’re told over and over again how thinly stretched the H and h are financially and how everything is riding on Avery being able to make a go of her bakery and for Trace to get some new contracts from people impressed by his work on her building. Throw in a former ex-con who seems shifty and a policeman who has an irrational resentment of both Avery and Trace. I spent the second half of the book waiting for the hammer to fall.

The sense of tension as well as two likable main characters make this a very enjoyable read.

Texas Rose Always by Kay Graykowski

Graykowski always has a light touch with humor and this book, Texas Rose Always, is no exception. She’s made an interesting switch on the whole secret baby plot by introducing a couple, Daisy and Houston who meet up only once a year at the Burning Man Festival. And wouldn’t you know it, but Daisy ended up pregnant and no way to tell Houston since they didn’t exchange real names or cell phone numbers. When they meet up the next year, she hints that she wants something more permanent and he resists her as he does for her her hints for the next several years. And he is adamant that he doesn’t want children. So she keeps silent and finally decides not to return to Burning Man.

And then Daisy, who is really Justus Jacobi, gets the contract in her own business as a landscape architect to pretty up the family ranch where, of course, Houston “Rowdy” Rose is one of the sons. She brings her wonderfully appealing son, Hugh, with her to the ranch where she falls in love with his family and they love her right back. The scenes with her son hanging out with the men no one realizes are really his uncles and grandfather are just so endearing as they swap bits of strange trivia.

Then Rowdy returns and everything becomes clear as to Hugh’s paternity. There are misunderstandings as Rowdy doesn’t react well to not having been informed that he has a son, but it all will eventually reach a HEA.

I found I just couldn’t find too much sympathy for either the H or h. Rowdy’s hangup is that is secretly a great artist but doesn’t want to tell his family because he figures a bunch of ranchers would be fine with his becoming an award-winning winemaker, but wouldn’t love him if they found out that he paints? That’s just not believable, especially when we meet his family who happen to be simply the kindest and most loving people anyone could imagine. It’s not clear where his hangups come from so it’s hard to buy that he could be falling for a woman he meets for one week out of the year and yet he is too much of an emotional coward to even get her phone number. And Justus has hangups because her mother abandoned her and is a selfish witch, but she also had a loving father and stepmother. Yet she couldn’t bring herself to tell Rowdy/Houston that he has a son. She’d prefer to deny her son a father and relatives simply because she can’t find the courage to tell her lover about her son. If he flipped out and didn’t want anything to do with them, that would be tragic, but at least she’d know. Instead she hooks up with him year after year without telling him.

I enjoyed the book, but I found the behavior of the two lead characters so irritating; I just wanted to shake them. I’d take the son and grandparents any day over those two.

I received a free ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Meet Me Halfway by Kim Carmody

In this second book in Kim Carmody’s Off Field series about players on a fictional New York football team. I really enjoyed the first book, Lexington and 42nd, about a young Australian woman who came to New York to work for the team and ended up falling for the star quarterback. This book, Meet Me Halfway, is about a hot sports journalist, Olivia Callahan, who is shooting a documentary about a young first-round draft pick to the NY football team. She goes to interview Nate Sullivan, the new player as he graduates from college and prepares to play in the NFL.

Olivia and Nate fall for each other while she’s filming the documentary. She’s five years older than he is and a true city gal when he’s never been to the city before. They don’t seem to have much in common and I just couldn’t buy that this sophisticated professional woman was falling for a football player who just graduated college. I’m not a big fan of romances when the woman is several years older than the guy - I guess I’m old-fashioned like that, but I find the five-year gap when the guy is 22 years old. The differences in age when they’re older are not as stark as when a guy is basically just a college kid. Of course, he’s the nicest guy and a serious young man. In fact, he’s more appealing than Olivia who is a bit too driven and seems willing to use Nate both sexually and professionally.

I found a lot of the plot predictable. As soon as they came together halfway through the book, it was clear that her documentary was going to come between them. There is some mystery about a fight that Nate got into when he was a freshman, but it was pretty obvious what the story was behind that story.

I actually enjoyed the glimpses of the two characters of Emma and Will from the first book more than I did the romance between Nate and Olivia. I still enjoy the author and the team and would read another book in the series. This one was just a bit disappointing from the first book.

Thank you to Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My Valentine Seduction: Love Comes Later Book 3 by Serenity Woods

This is simply a lovely book. My Valentine Seduction is the third book in Woods’ series, “Love Comes Later,” about three thirty-something friends running a software business in New Zealand and how they found love. This book concerns Teddi who is blind and depressed on New Year’s Eve remembering her former boyfriend who had died four years ago. She ends up talking with Ethan whom she knows online since he plays the game that had made Teddi’s business a fortune. He doesn’t know that she’s one of the heads of the company or that she’s blind. He’s also depressed that New Year’s Eve thinking of his beloved wife who died two years ago leaving him to figure out how to be a good father to their two daughters.

I hadn’t thought I’d enjoy a book about a blind woman, but Woods handles Teddi’s blindness with such insight and care that I wondered if the author knows someone who is blind. Either that or she is overestimating how independently a totally blind person can live. Ethan is a totally real character. He’s a fireman and he’s having trouble coping with his nine-year old daughter who is still full of pain and anger over her mother’s death. He enjoys his late-night conversations with Teddi, but has honest worries about falling for a blind woman and the difficulties that might bring into his already difficult life. And he also isn’t comfortable being with a woman who is so very much richer than he is.

Their romance takes a long time to become a sexual one. Instead they take the time to become really good friends while they get to know each other. That seems so rare in romance books these days. But it also seems much more real than these books where the H and h take one look at each other and immediately fall in lust and love simultaneously. Real relationships don’t begin like that so it’s nice to see a relationship develop from late-night online conversations and to know that Teddi can’t see Ethan so she’s falling for the person he is rather than for his hunky fireman’s body. Of course, they do end up having a very satisfying sexual relationship, but that isn’t what binds them together.

Another thing I appreciated was Ethan’s lingering love for his wife. Too often with the H having had a wife who died, she is painted as someone with lots of flaw without whom he’s much better off. Instead, she seems to have been a wonderful woman and mother and he is lost without her. He also just misses the everyday comfort of being part of a couple. That seems a much more realistic portrayal of a widower’s grief. If anything, the book paints a much less sympathetic picture of Teddi’s former partner who was the twin brother of one the other owners of the company. In her memories, he comes off as a rather selfish, careless man.

I’ve really enjoyed this series. I was given a free review copy in exchange for an honest review, but I would have happily paid to read the book.

The Reluctant Cowboy by Kate Pearce

While The Reluctant Cowboy was mostly enjoyable, it was also a bit too long with the supposed conflict overdone. The hero is Chase Morgan, a multi-millionaire who has made his money from some sort of unidentified cyber invention, who has finally returned to the family ranch when his grandmother writes to ask for help. He has avoided the ranch because of his family’s tragic history when his mother disappeared and his father descended into alcoholism and abandoned his four sons. Chase is the oldest and hasn’t seen his brothers in years.

When he returns to the ranch, he meets January Mitchell, a history graduate student who is writing her dissertation on the Morgan ranch and its history while helping Ruth, Chase’s grandmother. Ruth and January want to preserve the ranch while Chase wants to sell it. But he also agrees to spend a few weeks helping out on the ranch which brings him in close contact with January. And guess what happens? They have to fight their irresistible sexual attraction. And what’s not to like about a brilliant, hunky guy who also has cowboy skills and is extremely rich to top it all off?

For someone who is writing a dissertation, January seems to spend most of her time riding around the ranch and helping out with chores. She doesn’t seem to have done much research until Chase arrives and rides around with her and helps her find a diary from his ancestor. Mostly what she does is stick her nose into Chase’s business. But, of course, that is all forgiven because he’s troubled and he finds her sexy.

There are hints about the Morgan family tragedy and what exactly happened, but it takes a long time until that is all explained. And there are hints about January’s past and her marriage, but that also takes a long time to figure out. There is the financial mystery that Ruth originally asked Chase to investigate, but that takes a long time to figure out also. Meanwhile, Chase and January spend a lot of time doing chores and riding around without much happening. There was a point when I figured that the book must be almost over since it seemed that I’d been reading for a long time and then I checked the Kindle register and I was less than 30% through the book. That’s not a good sign.

This is the first of a series of books about the Morgan brothers. Hopefully, without having to set up the family dynamic, the future books will not have such tedious stretches.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Love, Always and Forever

This is the third book in Morgan’s series, Sergeant Joe’s Boys, about three boys adopted by Joe and his wife, Marlene, and the men they grew up to become. All three boys had a very hard time of it as children until they were adopted by Joe and Marlene. From Joe they learned how to become good men and were inspired to join the military. From Marlene they learned how to treat a woman and what it means to love. I’ve enjoyed all the books in the series and this is no exception.

Love, Always and Forever is the story of Mikhail who has recently retired from the Marines and is now working as a fireman. He has his demons from his time in the military, but is learning to cope as he settles into his new life. Then he meets his very attractive neighbor, Amy Short. The two soon become good friends, working together on their neighboring gardens. Amy is eager to try new experiences such as learning to ride a motorcycle and adopting a pit bull puppy. And Mikhail is more and more attracted to Amy and wants to take their relationship beyond simple friendship.

It’s hinted throughout the book that Amy has moved away from her home in order to escape the smothering love of her family who are extremely protective of her because of a past unspecified health problem. We also know that Mikhail carries a load of guilt for not having been able to save his drug-addicted mother when he was a child and then not to be able to save civilians in Afghanistan or the victims of the fires he is fighting.

You know where this is going and how it will end up. But it is still a very pleasant ride to travel along with Mikhail’s and Amy’s journey to finding love. And I enjoyed the interactions between Mikhail and his brothers and the boy that his oldest brother adopted in the first book. Mikhail has his problems with his tempter and his PTSD, but he’s working through it and his brothers understand because they went through similar difficulties transitioning back to civilian life. Perhaps being a firefighter is not the best career choice for him; I’d think he’d do better in the family construction business, but I guess the reader doesn’t get to give career advice to fictional heroes.

I also enjoyed the relationship between Mikhail and his adopted mother. She is loving, but knows when to back off.

One thing that Marlene and Amy share is a love of cooking. Amy seems to cook up batches of cookies every day and then chows down on enormous banana splits when things are tough. I guess when you’re recovering from severe medical problems, you can afford all those calories without any noticeable way of working them off. But that’s just a minor complaint.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Raphael's Fling by Alix Nichols

Raphael's Fling is the second in Alix Nichols’ series featuring French brothers named Darcy. The first book, Find You in Paris, had a deliberate connection to Pride and Prejudice. I was hoping for another Austen tie-in, but didn’t detect it here. Our heroine, Mia, works at D’Arcy Consulting where she has been having an affair with the hunky, womanizing boss, Raphael D’Arcy. They have a meet-cute at a Christmas party where she is dressed as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and he’s come as Olaf the Snowman. They have a fun, flirty discussion on the balcony with her having no idea that the snowman is actually her boss. They get to know each other without having their attraction simply based on sexual attraction.

The book switches back and forth between current time and flashbacks. So we meet Mia and Raphael once their affair has already started. We just have to find out what complication is going to ensue and how they’re going to meet it. We need to find out if Raphael can get over his reluctance to get involved in a serious relationship and whether Mia where get over her reluctance to carry on an affair with her boss. She also is ashamed of her behavior because her parents are very socially conservative and apparently think that she and her sisters are virgins. That plotline was a bit unbelievable. And she seems to have an easy time finding jobs whenever the plot demands it of her. I somehow expect that jobs for specialists in medieval Europe aren't that easy to come by.

I was really enjoying this book through the first half. It all gets resolved rather quickly and easily. Given the plot complications that pop up in the latter half of the book, I would have anticipated a little more angst and difficulty with settling everything.

I always enjoy Nichols’ style and the contemporary French settings for her novels.

I received a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Could've Said Yes A Thistle Bend Novel by Tracy March

Tracy March continues her series about romance in a small, mountain town in Colorado with Could've Said Yes. This one features an attractive artist, Ellie London, who encounters a nunky EPA inspector, Collin Cooper who is temporarily in town to investigate pollution leaking from a site in the area. The two meet up when he’s out mountain biking and she encounters him and takes his photograph. She has an art technique of painting in photographs that I really had a hard time picturing, but we’re assured that the touched-up photos are striking.

The two are attracted to each other and find that they share a lot especially in their love of nature. Then there is a terrible environmental accident that threatens the economy of the town and Collin seems to be at fault. Think of last year’s horrible Gold King Mine disaster in which the EPA truly was at fault. He has to fight to minimize the damage as well as the politicking from the EPA. I thought it was rather interesting that, for a book with a definite environmentalist focus, it was still very critical of the work by the EPA.

Collin has to overcome his own fear of serious romance since he’s coming off of a failed engagement to a woman who is nothing like Ellie. He’s rather chicken, but we know he’ll come around in the end. I’m not too fond of the plot device where one of the characters has such cold feet from a former relationship that he or she thinks the best thing is just to abandon the new love interest for her/his own good. Do people really do that these days? But the interactions between the two are basically enjoyable so, overall, I recommend this book.

I was provided a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Back Check by Kelly Jamieson

Back Check is the fourth book in Jamieson’s sports-romance series about Chicago hockey players. I’ve read and enjoyed them all. I think the best part of each book is the interaction among the players as they get together and try to puzzle out romance in their clueless alpha guys’ way. This story involves Tanner Bennett who has to be the best man in his pal’s wedding. Bennett thinks that he is bad luck for weddings including his own short-lived romance. The wedding is for Marc Dupuis, the protagonist from the first book in the series, Major Misconduct.

The wedding planner for the wedding is Katelyn Medford who just happened to be Tanner’s first love from college. They had experienced a lovely romance but she had broken it off when he got his pro contract and he’d always resented that she didn’t give them a chance to carry on the romance. Little does he know that Katelyn had a legitimate and tragic reason why she couldn’t follow him to New York.

This is a sweet second-chance romance. We know that they’re going to fall for each other once again. The author doesn’t hold out forever to let the reader know what the reason was that Katelyn had had to break it off with him. I get irritated with books that try to hide the reason for the major misunderstanding until the end of the book so I was glad to get that out of the way. Another fault of other sports romances is that the sports is just an excuse to have a hot hero, but there isn’t much sports in the book. Jamieson is sure to include enough actual hockey to rise above that. And she includes the interaction among the guys for humorous interchanges among the guys to continue the fun.

I was provided a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Teach Your Heart by Tracey Alvarez

Teach Your Heart is the third book in Tracey Alvarez's series of novels taking place in New Zealand's northern reaches. I really enjoyed this book and I've read the previous two books, but didn't remember a lot of the details. Alvarez has the habit of carrying forth characters from past novels without much exposition of their past stories. I would have preferred just a couple of students reintroducing the characters and their back stories so I didn't have to go online to remind myself about these people.

This book involves two likable people who have their own insecurities to overcome. Gracie, the daughter of a supposedly soulless corporate lawyer, has fled her father’s expectations to drift around Europe. Now she’s returned and needs a job to escape the future her father has lined up for her. She takes a job as nanny/au pair/homeschool teacher to Owen Bennett’s lovable nieces and nephew. Owen, a workaholic doctor in Botany Bay, has had to suddenly take custody of his sister’s children. He doesn’t know much about the day-to-day concerns about taking care of children and can’t keep someone employed.

He offers the job to Gracie despite his misgivings about his attraction to his new employee. Well, you know where this is going. The children fall for Gracie; she helps Owen relax and enjoy the kids, and they give in to their sexual attraction to each other. There is a minor complication and misunderstanding, but overall this is an enjoyable read following two lovely characters find each other and their new family.

I was provided a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Silver-Tongued Devil (Portland Devils Book 1) by Rosalind James

I’ve read all of Rosalind James’ novels and Silver-Tongued Devil is one of my very favorites. The charm stems from the clever repartee between the hero and heroine. There is rather a Cinderella plot as the hero, Blake Orbison, is a multi-millionaire and just to make him even more yummy, a former Super Bowl-winning quarterback. Apparently, he’s spent his money making lucrative real estate deals and, now that an injury has ended his career, is building a luxury resort in a small Idaho town.

The heroine, Dakota, has a small painting business that she handles for her stepfather who was injured in a terrible accident on one of Blake’s other construction projects. She’s returned home to help out and earn money to help pay off her stepfather’s mortgage. She’s also an extremely talented artist creating sensual glass mosaics. Think of Georgia O’Keeffe’s flower paintings done in glass. They sound lovely.

She and Blake hit it off right away and the sexual sparks and witty conversation flies between them. However, she’s wary of him because of his wealth and resentment over her stepfather’s injury for which he received very little help from the company.

The good guys are very good and appealing in this novel and the bad guys are irredeemably bad. Dakota’s father was a Lakota and so she has suffered a lot of prejudice in this small town and sexual assault when she was a teenager.

Blake had thought that he wanted to settle down with a sophisticated woman who would be happy to stay at home and raise his children. Little did he know that what he really wanted was a sexy, smart artist who dreams of traveling beyond this small town with all its prejudices.

Blake reminds me a little of Dean Robillard in Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ Natural Born Charmer, with his charming wit and his attraction to a woman totally unlike the usual type of woman he was attracted to. I’ve never met anyone as witty and charming as these two fictional heroes, but I sure enjoyed reading about them.

My New Year Fling (Love Comes Later, #2) by Serenity Woods

My New Year Fling is the second book in Woods’ series, “Love Comes Later,” which revolves around the billionaire owners of New Zealand’s largest gaming company. They’re good friends, but have suffered the devastating loss of the twin brother of the company’s main programmer, Rich. To top it off, the deceased young man was engaged to the sister of the other owner. And Rich, the identical surviving twin has always been in love with his brother’s fiance. So on top of having a hard time overcoming the death of his twin, he has to fight the guiltt and anger he feels of having been jealous.

It is now Christmas and the fourth anniversary of his brother’s death and Rich has retired to a small beach house in northern New Zealand to get through the hard time by drinking himself into a stupor. But the young woman staying in the beach house next to him, Jess, is there for her own recovery from feelings of inadequacy and sadness. She is recovering from a disastrous love affair and having to face the fact that she’s in her mid 30s and doesn’t have a partner, family, or job.

The book is about these two sad, but decent people meeting and having a short fling over the holidays. She doesn’t know that Rich is a billionaire and he doesn’t know all of her sad secrets. But they find that they can help each other get beyond their pasts and embrace the present and future.

And hot sex between two good-looking people doesn’t hurt either.

There isn’t much plot in this book - it’s all about two unhappy people coming together and finding that they can help each other. And one thing that I really like is that Woods shows why they fall in love instead of just making it the result of irresistible lust as so many romance authors do. She gives us the conversations between them instead of just telling us that they get along. Few romance authors actually do that these days. We are told that they relate to each other, but the author can’t be bothered to come up with a conversation, much less several conversations, to demonstrate why they do.

This was a lovely book. The one complaint I would have had is that everything gets resolved pretty easily and painlessly. Jess worries that she’ll feel uncomfortable in his world of wealth and feel too dependent on him, but then decides not to and that seems enough. However, I couldn’t put the book down, not because I needed to know how it came out - being a romance, we know how it’s going to come out - but because I enjoyed riding along with these two good people finding each other.

I voluntarily reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book

Take Me Back by Rosalind James

This is the fourth book in James’ series of romance with a dollop of suspense set in the Idaho town of Paradise. This book opens with the death of a thoroughly despicable multi-millionaire. He chokes on an ice cube while an unnamed person watches him die and does nothing. We learn that he has divided his money between his daughter, Hallie, and an unacknowledged son. Hallie had once had a night of romance and lovemaking while in high school with Jim Lawson, the older half-brother of Hallie’s newly discovered half-brother. And when they were discovered making love, her father forced Jim out of town. He’d joined the army and has now returned to be a deputy sheriff in Paradise where he’s raising his daughter after his wife tragically died of cancer.

So there is a whole lot going on in this novel. We have the second chance romance between Jim and Hallie even though Hallie’s father had left a clause in his will that she can’t inherit his millions if she has a sexual relationship with Jim for six months after his death. Hallie and Jim rediscover their attraction though they have to hide everything. And then Hallie has to decide what she wants to do with her life and whether she wants her father’s money. The young son has his own problems. We find out how abusive and evil Hallie’s father had been.

If that weren’t enough, there is also the lurking presence of the guy who witnessed her father’s death. He just can’t leave everything alone and still keeps threatening and attacking Hallie. There didn’t seem any reason for him to keep doing that since he’d gotten away with the first death, but he keeps escalating his attacks on Hallie. And that of course brings Jim to help protect the woman he’s realizing that he is still attracted to.

I read this all in one sitting. Even though I didn’t buy that the bad guy would keep going after Hallie and it wasn’t that difficult to guess who it turned out to be, James builds up suspense interspersed with the growing feelings between Hallie and Jim as they both discover the strength to build a deep relationship on the sexual attraction between them.

Harmony and High Heels (Fort Worth Wranglers #2) by Tracy Wolff and Katie Graykowski

Harmony and High Heels is a sequel to the authors' earlier romance, Lyric and Lingerie. The romance in this book involves Harmony, the twin sister of the heroine of the first book. Harmony lives a rather confused life. She pretends to be the good daughter that her mother demands. She dresses conservatively and bakes delicacies in the bakery that she and her mother co-own. But deep down, she prides herself on being a bad girl. She hides tattoos and body piercings and her participation in a combo baker/cage-match TV show. And now the producers of that show want her to star in her own TV show, Bad-Ass Baker.

In her desire to change her reputation as a good girl, she drags her twin sister to a biker bar where they get in a fight and are rescued by her brother-in-law, a retired quarterback, and Dalton, the GM of the Super Bowl winners, the Fort Worth Wranglers. Dalton is immediately attracted to Harmony and likes her for her bad-girl vibe.

There are cute moments in the book, but the whole set-up is just too unbelievable. We’re supposed to believe that Harmony wants to change her reputation, yet every time she does something the slightest bit shocking, people think it’s her astrophysicist twin sister. The woman is so insecure yet also willing to be outragerous.

The book starts out with her throwing a rather immature fit because Lyric, the twin, cannot go BASE skiing with her in South America because her husband worries that his wife’s klutziness would endanger her. Harmony screeches up and down about how her sister is letting her husband dictate her life, but she knows that her sister is a klutz; why would she want her sister to take on a dangerous sport when she’s not experienced at it. Harmony just comes off as an immature and insecure harridan. I liked Dalton a lot but Harmony just got on my nerves.

But if you don’t mind suspending disbelief about the plot and character, the book was funny and there were some cute scenes. I would have liked more on Dalton’s job as GM of a football team. It just seemed like he was given that job title and a few events to go to, but he could just as easily have had any sort of business job. What’s the point of having a sports romance if there isn’t any sports in it?

Thank you to the authors for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.