Falling for a Starlet

I had great fun watching this couple come together. I love stories that have actors/actresses/celebrities in them. 

This pair had excellent enemies-to-lovers chemistry. I liked how the author showed their vulnerabilities and the ways they could compliment each other. Not to mention how much family played into the story and their motivations. 

Unfortunatley I can't find this availble to read on a retailer, so I'm not sure how I picked it up or why the author took it down. If you can locate a copy, I recommend grabbing it. You'll be happy you did. 

Love's Broken Road

This might be my first read by Ms. Bellon. I would read more by her. 

Lots of baggage on both sides for this widow and widower for different reasons. Great first contact and lots of conflict to keep the tension going. Plus the kid is adorable. 

There are heavy themes here. Don't let that stop you. There's tons of tenderness and sweetness too. A slight element of suspense. 

AMAZON 

Two broken hearts. One more chance for love.

After surviving a difficult marriage, Victoria Newel needs a clean slate for herself and her son. Taking a job as a math teacher, she moves across the country to the small town of Lincoln, Utah, where no one knows her and she can start over. However, her new colleague, Drew Dalton, offers her friendship and maybe something more. But has her heart healed enough that she could trust again?

Drew Dalton lost his wife to cancer years ago and he locked his heart away, throwing himself into his teaching job. But when Victoria Newel starts working at the high school, she awakens something in him that he never thought he’d feel again. Her gentle nature and quiet strength draws him to her, but it’s obvious she’s hiding something in her past from him. Can he open his heart to a woman who harbors so many secrets of her own?

Don't Bet on Love

It's always a good day when I get to sit down and read a book by Ms. Lieske. 

She takes a break from her contemporary romances to write a few YA, and proves her skills are perfectly transferrable. 

Lots of great tension between the characters and tons going on in their personal lives (really tough stuff!),  besides trying to navigate the pitfalls of a fake relationship. 

I recomend this book along with all of her others. 

AMAZON

It was just a simple bet. Too bad his heart got involved.

Get the school’s ice queen to go to Homecoming with him. Lane didn’t think it would be a big deal. He was on the football team. Girls liked him. He takes the challenge. What he didn’t know was that the ice queen overheard the whole thing.

Trudy was having the worst day of her life. And then she overhears Lane and Gabe talking smack about her. If Lane thought he could sweet talk her into going to Homecoming with him, he was going to be disappointed.

But when the principal forces her to tutor Lane in calculus, she’s stuck.

Trudy devises a plan to get back at him. What she didn’t plan on was losing her heart to him.

An Irish Heart

This is my first read by Ms. Zack, and I'm inclined to read more of her books now. 

There's a case of mistaken identity. Lots of Irish flare. A wounded hero. Intriuge. And tons of heart. 

Escape to Ireland today. 

AMAZON

An Emerald Land -
An Unknown Double -

Successful advertising manager, Greta Conner travels to Ireland to fulfill a last wish from her mother. After arriving in Ireland, she is drawn to a colorful village named Angel’s Hollow. When a dark-haired stranger approaches and calls her by another name, Greta is intrigued to discover she’s the image of Aedan O’Riain’s ex-girlfriend. Does she have a close relative unknown to her?

Aedan can’t understand his misfortune. Along with near bankruptcy in his future, his ex is trying to fool him by claiming she’s Greta Conner from the States. Is it some sort of plot to further ruin his reputation? Adding to his angst, his brother, Reece, insists on dating Greta if Aedan will not. All will certainly be lost if Reece falls into her plans.

Angel’s Hollow becomes like home for Greta, and there’s no one her heart loves more than Aedan. But will an unknown twin threaten all she’s longed for?

The Day He Asked Again

I'm a pretty regular fan of Ms. Johnson's work. I'll read anything she writes because I know what I'm getting in advance: a well-crafted clean read with swoony kisses and lots of heart. 

Really loved the challenge of bringing this couple together when she lost her first husband to the sea and he's a coast guard captain. Talk about conflicts of the heart! 

As always, Ms. Johnson delivers. I've enjoyed other books in this series too. 

AMAZON

A Coast Guard captain would rather spend his time on the sea...unless he's with the woman he's been crushing on for months. If Dave asks just one more time, will Brooklynn give their second chance at romance another shot?

David Reddington has spent years in the Coast Guard, and his career brings him a lot of joy. But he’s lonely even surrounded by his crew, and he feels like he’s perpetually looking out to the ocean, hoping and wishing he could be as fulfilled on land as he is at sea.

Brooklynn Parrish lost her husband three years ago to an accident on the ocean, and she can’t bring herself to accept Dave’s invitations to dinner. Or lunch. Or even coffee. How he can go out on his ship each day baffles her, and she’s not willing to lose another loved one to the relentless ocean waves.

But Dave only has eyes for her, and when they get put together to organize Hawthorne Harbor’s Spring Fling, Brooklynn can’t deny the attraction between them. As they go through the bachelor auction, tour the blooming apple orchards, and judge the dessert bake-off, their relationship deepens and strengthens. 

Will she be strong enough to battle the unyielding ocean? Or will she lose her heart to another man destined for a catastrophe at sea?

The Italian Villa

I love books that take me to foreign countries and let me experience the food, culture, and climate. 

This one takes the reader to the high mountains of Italy, where we explore the imaginary town of Montevino and it's colorful characters. 

An excellent historical, slice of life, coming of age novel with a romantic thread that captures the reader and makes me wish for a visit to Italy. 

Heartwarming and hearttugging. A wonderful read. 

The only bits that through me out were the uses of British words/phrases in an Itlaian setting as I'm an American. 

Note: this does have a fade to black intimacy scene for those sweet romance readers out there. 

This is my first read by Ms. Sacerdoti. I would read another novel of hers. 

AMAZON

Callie, a lonely small-town waitress, is still reeling from the discovery that she’s adopted when she arrives in Montevino, Italy in search of answers – the keys to the stunning hillside villa she has just inherited clutched tightly in her hand. Inside the rusted gates, and through a large wooden front door dripping with sun-kissed flowers, Callie can’t decide if she’s more astonished by her new home or her first encounter with the mysterious young groundskeeper, Tommaso.

Wandering the villa barefoot at night, Callie finds a diary belonging to a woman named Elisa, wrapped in faded blue ribbon and hidden in her birthmother’s antique wardrobe. Page by page, Callie is swept away by its story of love, passion, heartbreak and betrayal as she reads how Elisa married her childhood sweetheart in secret before fleeing to the woods to join the resistance. They vowed to find each other again when the war was over, but history had other plans.

Callie is certain that her and Elisa’s lives are somehow connected, and that the truth about her family is hidden somewhere within the diary’s crinkled yellow pages. It gives her the courage to start asking questions around the close-knit village until, at long last, she feels her closed-off heart begin to open. Perhaps even enough to let someone in…

But when a devastating betrayal in the final pages of the diary unlocks a heart-breaking secret about who Callie’s mother really is, the chance for a new life shatters in front of her. Can she persuade the locals to forgive her past and accept the truth about her identity?

Who Wants to Marry a Mormon Girl?

This is a quick engaging read that's framed around The Bachelorette premise. 

On girl. Twenty guys. And things get intense fast! 

And it's a love triangle. 

Overall it's a fun read. You do need some basic Christian/Mormon (they don't go by that anymore) culture knowledge to understand what's going on. But don't let that stop you. It's helpful but not imperative. 

There is mention of alcohol and recreational drug use. 

AMAZON

One elegant leading lady and twenty hot guys. What could possibly go wrong?

Michelle knew she wouldn’t meet her forever husband on a reality dating show. This was just for fun. You never know what might happen when surrounded by twenty hot guys, none of whom shared her values.

Running from his past, Ashton rides the waves to the pinnacle of his career as a professional surfer. He’s just arrogant enough to think he stands a chance with the elegant leading lady playing the part of bachelorette on the dating show, Love Letters.

Until he figures out she’s a Mormon.

Even before he makes the mistake of calling her out in front of the other guys he knows she’ll never choose him. Good girls don’t choose bad boys and there was no way he could hide his secrets from Michelle. Or could he?