My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Category: Adult
Genre: Romance, Contemporary Romance
Content: Clean
7 fabulous Sweet & Sassy Romances-
The Last Single Girl by Bria Quinlan
Finding Faith by Bridget E Baker
Fake Marriage to My Best Friend by Kat Cantrell
The Right Resolution by Kristen Ethridge
The (Not So) Perfect Day by Maggie Dallen
Jesse and the Ice Princess by Michelle MacQueen
#PleaseSayYes by Tari Lynn Jewett
This is a collection of clean
contemporary rom com stories. Maybe I don't know what rom com means,
but I thought that meant funny romance, and mostly these were not really
funny. Mostly these stories reminded me of Hallmark channel romance
movies. That doesn't mean they weren't good to read though. For the most
part I enjoyed this anthology. It's rare for me to read complete
anthologies. I usually just read the stories that are included by my
favorite authors, but this time around I almost read the whole thing. I
guess I was in the mood for some light romance. There was only one book I
skipped and that was book 6. I've never been interested in the "ice
skater meets hockey player plot" so I decided not to read that one.
Overall I enjoyed escaping into this book so I'm giving it as a whole 4
stars, but I'm also going to include my individual ratings and comments
on each book.
The Last Single Girl by Bria Quinlan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
After
Sarah assures her friends she'll be bringing a plus-one to their New
Year's party, she has just a month to find Mr. Right. Will one bad date
after another convince her to give up the ruse - or could the perfect
guy be hiding right under her nose?
I really loved how the main character kept trying to meet someone online for a date and how badly they all end up. This was the book that I thought was the funniest out of the collection. I also loved the guy she ends up with. This romance was sweet and I want to read more of this series.
Finding Faith by Bridget E Baker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Thanks to lousy parents, Mary swore off ever having kids and threw herself into charity work instead.
When she meets hunky Luke, sparks fly.
But she won't discover he's a widower with two kids for three more days.
What then?
I had already read this book and it's still a favorite contemporary romance of mine. I like how Bridget Baker adds inspirational and emotional touches to her stories. Luke is a favorite male romance character of mine. I've already read this whole series and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Fake Marriage to Her Best Friend by Kat Cantrell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Nomi
Hannon is sick of losing. She's not about to lose the city council
election. Too bad she just accidentally starred in a compromising photo
her squeaky-clean opponent is all too willing to use against her. Surely
marrying ex-CEO Malone DuMar, the guy in the photo—her best friend—will
solve the problem…right?
It's a simple plan. Only pretend. But that was before the kiss that changed everything.
I really enjoyed this book.
It was a nice, sweet, best friends to lovers story. The premise may have
been a bit of a stretch, but that's often the case with these kind of
books. It really didn't bother me because I thought the book was sweet,
romantic, and even a little sexy with those kisses. There was so much
chemistry and I loved Malone. I do think that the book title could be
better though.
The Right Resolution
by Kristen Ethridge
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
When the clock strikes midnight at her beachside cottage on New Year's Eve, Eve Larson plans a fresh start following a year of heartbreaking disappointments. But when an enemy from her past tracks her down, will he stand in the way of rebuilding her dreams? Add in a treasured royal heirloom, New Year's resolutions, and sweet kisses on moonlit beaches to make the start of one unforgettable year.
This is a reunion type
romance, and there are things I loved about this story. I enjoyed the
back story of the couple and how they end up falling in love. I also
enjoyed the growth that they both had, but I had a hard time getting
past some weird descriptions and comparisons in this story. I know I've
mentioned this kind of thing in other reviews, but it's a real pet peeve
of mine. Maybe I should start calling it the "Paolini syndrome" because
Christopher Paolini is the first author I really noticed do this. Poor
Christopher. He just can't catch a break from me! One example from this
story would be this sentence:
"Spencer shifted and dropped his
finger, then pulled his arm back to himself, the cotton of his borrowed
sleeve sliding across the thin knit of her own cotton shirt like the
glide of a ballroom dance, deceiving in carefully choreographed
simplicity."
Ok, first why are we focusing so much on things like
their shirts? Their shirt fabrics sliding together are being compared
to a ballroom dance. That's kind of weird, and there is too much
emphasis being put on something that doesn't matter. If it was his touch
on her skin it would have been better, but this mostly just distracted
me from the story. There are a few other examples of this in the story,
but I think you can get the point.
That being said, overall I still liked this book and found the story compelling. Eve and Spencer were both easy to like and I could feel the grief that Eve was feeling over the loss of her mother. I also appreciated the inspirational parts of the story.
After reading some other
reviews of this one it appears that this is a retooled version of the
story. I'm not completely sure, but it sounds like there are some
elements that other reviewers had problems with that seem to no longer
be the same. Like in the original version the love interest was a lawyer
maybe? But he isn't in this version. And apparently there are health
problems that are addressed more in this version. It also looks like the
author is retooling the whole series, as there are two versions of the
series. In one version this is the second book and in the newest version
this is the first book.
The (Not So) Perfect Day
by Maggie Dallen
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Ellie's planned the perfect wedding, just…with the wrong groom. The clock is ticking to Ellie's big day. There's only one thing missing—her best friend. As a travel photojournalist, Ian's often off the grid, so she's not worried--much. After all, he's always there for her when she needs him. When Ian finally arrives mere days before the wedding, he's not content to play best man. He's back to claim her heart. But can he prove what they have is true love before she walks down the aisle with the wrong man?
This was a cute best
friends to lovers story that I liked a lot. I felt like the characters
were a little too obstinate and oblivious to their feelings at times,
which felt a little contrived, but I liked the characters and their love
story was sweet.
Jesse and the Ice Princess by Michelle MacQueen
My Rating: I didn't read it so I didn't rate it.
An ice princess doesn't fall for the hockey captain's charm unless said captain has a habit of always getting his way.
Charlotte
wants nothing to do with Jesse. Not when he shows up to watch her
skate. Not when he orchestrates her detention. And especially not when
he convinces the principal to force her into helping the no-win hockey
team change their record.
What if he's more than charm and semi-okay hockey skills? Is the boy with no rules worth breaking all of hers for?
#PleaseSayYes
by Tari Lynn Jewett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Lucy, wakes on New Year's Day to find a message from a secret admirer on her favorite social media site!
Each
day he posts a photo with a clue to his identity, a message letting her
know he intends to ask her out for Valentine's and the hashtag
#PleaseSayYes. Before she can decide what to do, the posts go viral, and
the whole world weighs in.
Should she take a chance? Will social
media bring them together, or keep them apart? Only chocolate, wine and
girlfriends can help her now.
A had a couple of problems with Lucy's girlfriends though. They were rather pushy at times, and also did a couple of things that kind of bothered me. One involved taking and posting photos of Lucy on social media without her knowledge, and the other involved one of her friends profiting off the whole social media thing. But I don't think these things would have bothered me if they had just asked her before they did them.
Despite that I liked everything else about this story. I could just see this as a Hallmark Channel movie. I especially loved the way things ended up playing out with the date and some of the subterfuge that was involved.
No comments:
Post a Comment