The Write Off by: K.M. Gillis

The Write Off
Author: K.M. Gillis
Published: May 2024
Publisher: K.M. Gillis
Pages: 324
Format: ARC e-Book
Rating: 4/5
Summary:

There’s a fine line between love and loathe.

Rilla Pine is ready for her main character moment, but first her debut fantasy novel must pass inspection by her uptight editor. Easy on her eyes but hard on her head, he seems determined to dissect her life’s work.

Logan Carmichael turns manuscripts into bestsellers. A seasoned professional with ladders to climb and deadlines to meet, he has little patience for the erratic, albeit captivating, author who seems to find joy in pushing buttons he didn’t know he had.

Working together is plausible. Finding common ground and falling for the very person they’d like to set on fire? It’s a plot twist neither one saw coming.

A Healing Touch by: Melissa A. Hanson

A Healing Touch (Riverview Series #3)
Author: Melissa A. Hanson
Published: March 2024
Publisher: Melissa A. Hanson
Pages: 290
Format: ARC Paperback
Rating: 4/5
Summary:

A hazy night rips away nineteen year old Natasha Wakefield’s innocence. Weeks from the end of what had been a great freshman year in college Natasha no longer feels safe and finds herself withdrawing from her friends and family. Instead of returning home to Riverview for the summer Natasha lands a dream internship at a local architecture firm. She focuses on work and tries to ignore the pain and bury it, but there’s someone watching her unwilling to let her forget.

Twenty-three year old Troy DeLuca is following in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps and has been trained since childhood to take over the family architecture practice. The day Natasha is hired as an intern his well-planned life is beginning to flip upside down. There’s something oddly familiar about the quiet, subdued girl. Painful past memories that he thought he’d buried years before are now flooding his present.

Will Troy’s touch be enough to heal the angry and raw wounds that Natasha carries? Will she continue to shut herself off and run? Or will she find the strength to take her life back?

A story about stolen innocence and the struggles to forget, forgive, and move forward.

The Southern Thirst Trap by: Adrian R. Hale

The Southern Thirst Trap (Southern Gods #3)
Author: Adrian R. Hale
Published: May 2024
Publisher: Adrian R. Hale
Format: ARC e-Book
Pages: 413
Rating: 5/5
Summary:

HARLOWE

The name Zander Olsen is synonymous with no repeats, no attachments, and pursuing beautiful women he leaves in the dust after he’s conquered them. I knew his rules going into our arrangement. I shouldn’t have thought I’d be any different. Yet, we somehow discovered something amazing together during our tropical vacation that changed my life forever. I thought it changed him, too. Instead, he told me forever was a lie and thoroughly blocked me from his life the second we returned. Why is he back now? And what gives him the right to be so interested in my son after all this time? Zander’s the one man who has the power to ruin my life and I won’t let him do that to me again, even if my body wants to betray me every time he gets close.

ZANDER

Harlowe Sorenson is the only woman I was willing to break my rules for, and in the end, it burned us both. I put my career and the growth of Olympus International first in my life, so I can’t let women stick around long enough to distract me from that goal, not even one as vivacious, challenging, and captivating as her. Falling for Harlowe wasn’t in my plans, so I cut out my heart and crushed hers thoroughly to ensure she wouldn’t be a problem. I’d almost forgotten about her. So why, after crashing into her five years later, am I still drawn to her and have too many questions about her carefully guarded son? A son who looks more like me than he should. I need to get these answers without risking my business, my heart, and hers in the process, or I’ll have hell to pay once again.

Fragile Sanctuary by: Catherine Cowles

Fragile Sanctuary (Sparrow Falls #1)
Author: Catherine Cowles
Published: May 2024
Publisher: Catherine Cowles
Format: ARC e-Book/Paperback
Pages: 366
Rating: 5/5
Summary:

The scowl should’ve been my first clue to stay far away from Anson Hunt. The sexy smirk and the fact that he’s my brother’s best friend? Reasons two and three. Not to mention, he’s the new contractor working on my house.

He’s everything I’m not: grumpy, rude, and more than a little attached to his solitude. It doesn’t matter how many times I try to kill him with kindness; the man simply won’t crack.

Until he sees me shatter.

Because when my world comes crashing down around me, Anson is the one catching me as I fall. And as so-called accidents start plaguing every part of my life, it’s Anson who steps in to keep me safe.

As he does, I can’t help but feel a flicker of heat. And it only takes a single moment for that spark to ignite into flames, engulfing us both.

But Anson’s a man with secrets, and they have a price. When they’re revealed, neither of us will make it out unscathed…

Unstoppable Love by: Stacey Lynn

Unstoppable Love (Kelley Family #2)
Author: Stacey Lynn
Published: May 2024
Publisher: Stacey Lynn
Format: ARC e-Book
Pages: 331
Rating: 4.5/5
Summary:
A sizzling, small town, enemies to lovers, sports standalone romance from bestselling author, Stacey Lynn.

Ava Decker has hated me for just as many years as I’ve spent loving her.

I made a mistake pretending our night together never happened. For pretending I forgot. But we were young and I was getting ready to leave for college with big plans for the future.

I had no plans to return to our small town in Colorado anytime soon and Ava never wanted to leave. That alone was enough to keep me away from her while we both grew up.

And yet, I never forgot about her and what she means to me.

Now eight years later, imagine my surprise, when I come home and find Sleeping Beauty asleep on my couch, thinking I wouldn’t be back home from my off-season vacation for a few weeks.

As a professional football player, I know all about grabbing an opportunity and running with it. This is my chance to finally convince the girl of my dreams to stay and to tell her the truth about that fateful night years ago.

But getting Ava Decker to not only forgive me but to give me another chance comes with a whole new set of plays I’m not used to.

I’ve got all the time in the world to convince her. I’m committed to showing to her that she is my endgame. I let her go once before and I’ll stop at nothing to prove to her that my love for her is real and an unstoppable force.

Faceoff by: Mari Loyal

Faceoff (St. Cloud Hockey #1)
Author: Mari Loyal
Published: April 2024
Publisher: Mari Loyal
Format: ARC e-Book
Pages: 326
Rating: 4/5
Summary:

He’s the cocky captain of the men’s hockey team, and now we’re stuck together for a class project.

LUZ

The days in my hockey career are numbered after an accident years ago that left me with chronic pain. Now that I’ve become the captain of the women’s team at my jock-hating ivy league college, the last thing I need is any distractions from school or hockey.

But then something that can only be defined as a meet-disaster with Max Cassiano, the men’s team captain, leads to open hostility between our teams. Fortunately, that whole mess helps me ignore how freaking hot he is.

Kinda.

MAX

I might seem like the hottest prospect to everyone in town, but I’m chopped liver to my massive Italian family. My focus has to be on my hockey career if I want to wow them, and I’m sure being named captain of the men’s team is the ticket.

Until a snobby professor pairs me up for an assignment with the one distraction I can’t seem to Luz, the captain of the women’s team. And she’s way cuter than anyone who hates me has a right to be.

Sparks fly when we faceoff off the ice, but can we win this game if our teams hate each other? Faceoff is a dual POV, fade-to-black hockey college romance with mild language, and heat without spice. It’s the first book in the St. Cloud Hockey trilogy and can also be read as a standalone.