I’m a long time fan of Penny Reid’s books, in particular her Knitting in the City series, which led to her Winston Brothers series, which has now led I’m a long time fan of Penny Reid’s books, in particular her Knitting in the City series, which led to her Winston Brothers series, which has now led to her Good Folk: Modern Folktales series. This latest offering brings to the forefront some of the secondary characters met through the Winstons. Folk Around and Find Out is an opposites-attract romance that I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish. It may even have eclipsed Beard Science as my favourite of Reid’s contemporary romances (just don’t tell Cletus!).
Hank Weller runs a strip club, The Pink Pony, in Green Valley, Tennessee. It’s a business he started to thwart his wealthy family’s expectations of him, but one he runs with pride. (He also has other businesses that are equally profitable, but most people don’t know about them). He makes sure the strippers who work for him are paid fair wages, are protected from harassment, and are given other job opportunities when they no longer want to perform at the club. In other words, he’s a decent guy despite what people who don’t know him may think. He also happens to be Beau Winston’s best friend, a relationship that has lasted over the years since childhood.
Charlotte Mitchell is an Elementary school teacher and a church-going mother of four (Kimmy, Joshua, Sonya and Frankie) whose ex-husband happens to have run off with one of Hank’s employees. This has put Hank into the hot seat (though the blame really lies with Charlotte’s ex), with the community giving him the cold shoulder since it happened. But Charlotte needs Hank – or rather, she needs to find out what happened to her cousin, who was rumoured to have worked at a strip club before disappearing – so she approaches Hank for a job as a stripper to get an ‘in’ to the business. She doesn’t think about what that might mean for her own reputation, or for her children at school, as she’s never been one to be bothered by rumours and such. Hank refuses, but then it turns out he needs a bookkeeper and Charlotte has those skills – so voilà, she ends up working for him anyway. Her plan is to work there for only a couple of weeks while she investigates what happened to her cousin.
Once in each other’s company, Hank can admit to himself that he’s attracted to Charlotte. As for Charlotte, well she’d had an unrequited crush on Hank when they were teenagers; he’s a few years older than her and sometimes they would both be hanging out at the Winstons’ at the same time (Hank with Beau and Charlotte with Beau’s younger brother Roscoe). Of course it’s been several years since then, and Charlotte thought she’d put those feelings to bed a long time ago. However. now that Charlotte is Hank’s employee, she’s off limits as far as Hank is concerned. This ratchets up the sexual tension between them. Eventually, with Charlotte’s full consent, their feelings spill over into a secret affair. But can it really lead to a lasting relationship?
Watching Charlotte and Hank dance around each other is a lot of fun as they come to terms with their attraction. Their love scenes are sexy (a definite plus for single mom Charlotte) and there is plenty of witty banter to go around. Growing up in the same community makes them think they already know a lot about each other, but they are constantly surprised by new information that makes them see one an
There wouldn’t be a Green Valley without the Winstons, so there are several cameo appearances by the brothers and their spouses. Charlotte is a good friend of Sienna (Jethro Winston’s wife) and their children have play dates and birthday parties together. Beau and Hank have a standing fishing date during which they get into in-depth conversations about life and love. At one point Cletus Winston (the man who knows everyone and has a secret dossier on them) gets involved when Charlotte’s ex-husband’s family starts to make trouble. I loved these appearances and catching up with everyone.
But the most enjoyable part of this story is how Charlotte’s children are all so different and how Hank is absolutely wonderful with them all. He treats them all as individuals and bonds with them in different ways. Hank, who has had no interest in having children up to this point in his life and has no experience with them at all, becomes a stalwart friend and helper and all-round parent material, to Charlotte (and Hank’s!) surprise. Ms. Reid is excellent at writing realistic child rearing scenarios and the addition of Hank to Charlotte’s family adds another meaningful layer to this romance.
I’m very happy with how this story evolved, the characters, the situations, and the sexy romance. There is a satisfying resolution to the case of the missing cousin, too. I highly recommend Folk Around and Find Out to fans of the author and to anyone who enjoys single parent romances and unexpected heroes.
Update: Enjoyed this just as much on the second read!
Original Review:
This is the first time I've read an Entangled Teen book (but I'm a long time fanUpdate: Enjoyed this just as much on the second read!
Original Review:
This is the first time I've read an Entangled Teen book (but I'm a long time fan of Entangled Publishing), but it just so happens to have been written by a favourite paranormal author of mine, so I'm willing to follow her into different avenues (so long as they stay in the romance realm). This is an imaginative fantasy romance, with the concept of twin princesses where one is the 'backup' in case something happens to the 'real' one certainly a different take though the idea of a twin impersonating the other is not. The worldbuilding is complex but not difficult to understand, as are the powers that the different characters have. I wasn't expecting the ending, but I'm not unhappy with it (it's cliffhanger-esque), though I'll probably have to read this one again when the next one comes out (which I hope won't be too far away). There is a sex scene in it but it's age appropriate for older teens and not graphic. The romance between Meren (18) and Reven (over 18) is well written, and if Meren is a complicated character then Reven is four times that complication. The pacing is good, there is lots of action and adventure, multiple intriguing secondary characters - just a great read overall.
A copy of this story was provided by the publisher via NetGalley....more
It was the synopsis of Do You Take This Man by Denise Williams that prompted me to pick it up, as well as the author herself, of whom I’d heard good tIt was the synopsis of Do You Take This Man by Denise Williams that prompted me to pick it up, as well as the author herself, of whom I’d heard good things but hadn’t yet had a chance to read. The set-up is quite a fun one – a female divorce lawyer who moonlights as a wedding officiant embarks on a mutually agreeable frenemies with benefits relationship with the male wedding planner with whom she butts heads. Based on these first impressions I had high hopes for this one, and it definitely met them.
Lear Campbell was an event planner for a California football team before a personal crisis redirected him across the country and into a new career as an assistant wedding planner for his cousin Penny. On his first day of work he collides with a woman in a hurry, a bruising encounter that leaves them both irritated and now late for their respective events, which, of course, happen to be in the same place and are in fact the same event, a wedding rehearsal.
RJ Brooks is a divorce attorney by trade, and a damn good one too. When her best friend Britta asked her to perform her upcoming wedding ceremony, RJ got her license but had no intentions of making it public. Yet that’s just what happens when she finds herself officiating a wedding between two movie superstars following a spontaneous wedding proposal in a park, one that gets filmed and posted online and suddenly she’s the one everyone wants as their officiant. It’s a lucrative side job, especially since her older divorce clients often have children who are looking to get married themselves. But it’s not going to divert her from her career goal. And it certainly isn’t because she believes in love. She can pretend as well as anyone, but having been abandoned by her father, ghosted by her best male friend in high school, and endured a recent breakup with a man who never appreciated her or saw beyond her cool outer shell, she’s got no illusions about romance.
It’s not just Penny that connects Lear and RJ. Lear also happens to be a friend of Gretchen, RJ’s mentor, at the law firm. Lear’s relationship with Gretchen makes things even worse as far as RJ is concerned, as pissing off Gretchen won’t bode well for her career aspirations. When Penny and her wife Kelly get a sudden call regarding a baby for adoption, Penny leaves Lear to handle some upcoming weddings on his own, with RJ as the officiant. They have different styles with people, they clash constantly, and yet somehow, there is a sizzle of attraction that just keeps getting stronger and stronger. It leads to the inevitable, a sizzling secret affair with no expectations on either side. Until real feelings start to come into play and RJ has to decide if she’s willing to let down her walls and let love in.
I enjoyed many aspects of this story. The uniqueness of having a male wedding planner was a nice change from the stereotypical female role, and I loved that RJ, despite seeing mostly the ugliness of divorce, isn’t completely able to turn off her romantic side, even if it’s hidden under a pretty thick shell. As Lear and RJ spend time together and get to know each other, the antagonism that defines the start of their relationship gets put behind them. Their personalities don’t change – as a Black woman, RJ has to do more to overcome obstacles and this has made her appear cold on the outside and she still sometimes retreats behind that shield. But with Lear, she can start to relax and open up, and he’s able to see the wonderful, thoughtful, loyal woman that she really is as she interacts with her friends and family. And Lear, coming off a painful breakup with some deep emotional scars, is able to own up to his mistakes with RJ, apologize for his missteps, and open up his own heart to caring again. I just loved seeing them take these tentative steps towards each other emotionally, even though they both pretend it’s all about the sex and the challenge of one-upping each other.
Additionally, the author is excellent at writing friendships and family relationships that resonate with the reader because they feel true to life. RJ’s best friends Britta and Kat know her inside and out and are excellent sounding boards as she tries to sort out her feelings. They aren’t afraid to point out (with love) her faults and gently push her to realize what she really wants to have with Lear. And Lear’s sister Caitlin is a positive influence on his life, as is his quiet uncle Harold, who in his own gentle way, is able to tease out Lear’s complicated feelings about RJ.
There are lots of funny moments, witty banter, and steamy love scenes to round out this contemporary romance which gives this wonderful couple their well deserved happy ending. I’m looking forward to catching up on Ms. William’s backlist!
Loved these imperfect characters and their believable path to an HEA. Rose struggles with depression and the lasting impact of her mother's suicide. CLoved these imperfect characters and their believable path to an HEA. Rose struggles with depression and the lasting impact of her mother's suicide. Cal has dyscalculia (a math learning disability) and an unsupportive family. Their initial night together seems promising but when Cal loses Rose's number, their connection is severed, at least until several months later when Cal ends up being her new roommate. Having given up on Cal, it takes extra effort on his part to convince Rose that he really did mean to call her, and thus we get the start of an actual friendship and renewal of trust. Rose's love of stuffed animals (and habit of taking instagram pictures with her favourite) is a sweet and quirky side of her personality, one which Cal embraces and accepts easily. It's a sweet, supportive love story that doesn't gloss over hard realities but makes their romance feel real. It's my favourite of the series.
A copy of this story was provided by the author....more
Zoe York’s Fearless at Heart is the fourth book in her Kincaids of Pine Harbour series, a spinoff series from her Pine Harbour series. It’s got one ofZoe York’s Fearless at Heart is the fourth book in her Kincaids of Pine Harbour series, a spinoff series from her Pine Harbour series. It’s got one of my favourite tropes – a second chance romance for a couple that were together as teenagers – and coming on the heels of Wild at Heart which was a favourite last year, I had high expectations for this one. It definitely lived up to them, putting another book on my favourites shelf.
It’s been twenty years since Seth Kincaid lived in Pine Harbour. His brothers are still there, and he’s the only one who went away, first into the military and then setting up his floatplane business in Blind Harbour, close to home by plane, but also close enough to Blind Harbor not have to stay overnight after visiting with his brothers. And January Howe is still there, his secret high school sweetheart, his high school heartbreak. He’s consciously tried to keep clear of her, so as not to open up old wounds. His ten year plan for his business and his life doesn’t include a permanent relationship, or rekindling an old one. But this summer, things could get complicated.
January is happy that her sister August has a chance to go on a reserve army mission overseas, even if it means January will be taking care of her niece, nephew and Howe’s Marina, an inheritance gift from their deceased father that August is trying to keep afloat. A teacher now, January usually isn’t around at the marina any more than necessary, but now she’s living there full time with the kids. And she knows that Seth has signed an agreement to run charter flights out of Pine Harbour three times a week, an agreement he made with August without knowing she’d be gone for the summer. So while January isn’t surprised to see Seth show up early one morning, Seth is knocked for a loop. After being so careful to keep out of January’s way for so long, not only will he be seeing her at the marina regularly, it also (small town and all) turns out that they’ll be involved in the wedding planning for his brother Will and fiancee Catie, Catie being a friend of January’s and Will being her boss (the principal) at the school.
From no contact to plenty of it, January and Seth struggle to balance their feelings about the past with the knowledge that they’ve grown into fully mature, responsible adults who still find themselves impossibly attracted to each other. Carrying on another secret relationship, just like in high school, but with the knowledge that as adults they can say goodbye at the end of the summer and go back to their previously planned futures seems easy, but will it end in heartbreak or happiness?
There’s just something about this author’s writing that grips me every time and no doubt if you check my Goodreads shelves or previous reviews here at AAR, you’ll see that she’s become a favourite. It seems so effortless to really like all the characters she creates, the families and the friends that intertwine into a community that you want to visit again and again. So being back in Pine Harbour is like visiting an old friend, with new and familiar faces making an appearance.
There are some tough memories and topics in this story. Deaths of parents and teenaged grief. And during their high school relationship, January got pregnant. Keeping it a secret from their families, Seth went with January when she got an abortion, fully present, supportive of her choice, giving her emotional and physical support, and knowing it was the right decision for them both. And then Seth, knowing his path would need to diverge from January’s as he entered the military to make something of himself, broke up with her and left, leaving her to pick up the pieces. All of these experiences have been carried with them and so it’s natural that January is wary of opening her heart up to Seth again. I really appreciated that twenty years later, the author makes it clear that neither Seth or January has any regrets over the choice made to have an abortion. Of course, one can think ‘what if’ but both of them have put it in the past and it’s just part of their history now.
As Seth and January start to share things with each other again, as friends, and then friends with benefits, it’s no surprise that their high school feelings come back to the surface, but deeper and stronger. Of course, this scares them both but it opens their eyes to a new possibility, of merging their future plans into one for them both. With emotional and heart-tugging scenes, laughter, sexy lovemaking and strong family relationships, the happy ending for Seth and January finds the compromise they are looking for and leaves the reader fully satisfied. I can’t wait to visit Pine Harbour again!
Earlier this year, while poking around in my TBR pile (it’s quite massive), I came across Mia Hopkins’ Thirsty, the first book in her Eastside BreweryEarlier this year, while poking around in my TBR pile (it’s quite massive), I came across Mia Hopkins’ Thirsty, the first book in her Eastside Brewery series. I started reading it and was totally absorbed, cursing myself for not having read it sooner. In short order, I read book two, Trashed, and then to my delight, discovered that Tanked, book three was being released this spring. So it turned out to be a fortuitous initial choice to start the series this year as I didn’t have to wait long for the final installment. The series follows the romantic lives and life altering decisions made by the Rosas brothers, and Tanked sees the youngest, Angel, joining his brothers in their quest to make the Eastside Brewery popular and profitable.
Angel Rosas hasn’t followed the same path as his two older brothers Sal and Eddie. For one, he hasn’t been in jail. He didn’t join a gang, like they did, following in their father’s footsteps while living in L.A.. Instead, after the death of his mother and young sister in a car accident, he was sent off to to live with relatives in Salinas, supposedly to keep him on the straight and narrow. Now twenty-four, he’s been back for the three years, riding out the pandemic with his family, helping to keep his brothers’ brewery afloat. With no place of his own, he bunks in Sal’s house and unknown to them, participates in an underground illegal fight club. The one bright memory of late is the one night stand he had when he first arrived back in L.A., with Deanna Delgado, a patron at the brewery. When he runs into her again at a vaccination clinic, it’s as if fate is stepping in to remind them of how good they were together.
Deanna is an overworked, underpaid, perpetually tired social worker. Having been assigned as Eddie’s case worker when he got out of jail, she’s gotten to know the Rosas brothers, but after the night she spent with Angel, she’d never called him back. At that time, he’d been twenty-one to her twenty-eight and she just couldn’t see anything real happening between them, so she’d ghosted him. But with their new chance encounter, things look a little different. Twenty-four isn’t so young now. And she’s just found out that she’ll be laid off in a few weeks. So maybe it’s time to let off a little steam and forget about the world in Angel’s arms. But this time, can it lead to something more?
I’m always excited when I find an author writing romances with older characters (and by older, I mean over forty) and Adele Buck’s The Wedding Bait hiI’m always excited when I find an author writing romances with older characters (and by older, I mean over forty) and Adele Buck’s The Wedding Bait hit the spot for me, garnering a place on my Best of 2022 list.
Tove Nilsen is getting ready to attend her daughter Emily’s wedding at a lakeside resort in Maryland. Emily, a cinematographer, is marrying her girlfriend Hayley, an up-and-coming musician whom she’d met on a video shoot. The problem is that Tove’s ex-husband Anthony has just told their daughter that he’ll be showing up with his latest young wife in tow (with a late acceptance, par for the course with him). The last thing Tove wants is to show up solo for the event and have Anthony sneering at her single-ness so she tells her daughter she’s bringing a date – and now she has to find one in a hurry. Upon explaining her dilemma to her best friend and business partner Parvati, her friend has a suggestion – look for a professional escort. And she even goes one better by finding just the man Tove needs, Patrick Mercer.
As a high-end male escort for twenty years, Patrick knows how to be discreet and cater to the person who has hired him. Retired at forty-five, for the last ten years he’s been enjoying the wealth from his career when he gets a call from his former agent about a weekend event escorting Tove. Though he’s not looking to re-enter the game, he’s intrigued. For one thing, Tove is the daughter of a famous supermodel whose poster used to grace his teenaged bedroom wall. But looking her up online, he also digs up the dirt on her husband and his multiple (and younger and younger wives). The idea of being there as a buffer for Tove against Anthony is very appealing, and he accepts the job.
Tove and Patrick only have a few hours to get to know each other during their car ride together to the wedding before appearing as a happy couple. But Patrick’s skill and genuine niceness make a stressful situation not only manageable, but enjoyable too. His services can include intimacy if that’s what Tove wants. But is she ready to leap into the unknown with a man who seems too good to be true?
This is a novella length contemporary romance and I’ll be honest, I could have read a lot more of Patrick and Tove! It was so nice to see Tove being treated properly by a partner (even if he was hired), a man who knows how to make women feel at ease, to be attentive to them, and to provide whatever support they need. He’s great at dealing with Anthony and his insults, and showing Anthony that he thinks he’s a fool for ditching Tove. Tove is a strong woman, a single parent (since Anthony could never be relied upon to be there for Emily as she was growing up) who is proud of who her daughter has become and excited to welcome her new daughter-in-law into the family. She’s used to sticking up for herself in front of Anthony, but what a nice stress release it is for her to realize she doesn’t have to go it alone with Patrick by her side.
Patrick makes no bones about being attracted to Tove and leaving the ball in her court as to whether she’s interested in making their weekend extra special. But with how Patrick is treating her and Emily, she’s willing to see if his skills at handling women so well extend to the bedroom. And they definitely do. When the weekend is over, Patrick extends an offer to Tove to pursue something more, leading to a happy for now ending.
The Wedding Bait is a sexy and enjoyable novella that has put this author on my radar and I’m hoping she’ll publish another Golden Years novella in the not too distant future.
Just fantastic! Definitely a contender for my best of 2022 year end list. With the ending of the Magic in Manhattan serie Reread update: Still awesome!
Just fantastic! Definitely a contender for my best of 2022 year end list. With the ending of the Magic in Manhattan series, I was thrilled to learn that it wouldn't be the end of seeing this world and the secondary characters within it. Set in 1925, it stars two of those earlier characters, Wesley Fine (an uptight a character as you'll ever meet or so it seems and also the ex-boyfriend of Arthur Kenzie who is the co-star of the original series) and Sebastian de Leon, a paranormal who's recently been released from a blood magic spell during which time he committed crimes against his will. These are two characters I would never have pictured together but it works, and so well! They get caught up in a lingering mystery and murder case that results in them spending time together and having to admit their mutual attraction. In a bit of a departure from the earlier series, this one has pushed the sex scene door ajar so we see a more complete picture of their relationship, to my delight. I would not hesitate to recommend this, and the earlier books, to anyone looking for an escape read of the highest order.
A copy of this story was provided by the publisher via NetGalley....more
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