Review: The One You Can’t Forget

Stories about school shootings are sadly never not relevant. In fact, the premise behind the tragedy that is the backdrop for the second installment in this series by Roni Loren is scarily prescient. I began reading this book the day of the Santa Fe shooting in Texas, trying to grapple with my own feelings about being so close to this latest preventable tragedy. The motive behind the fictional and the real murders appear to be unimaginably similar.

This book is barely about the shooting, however, and that’s how it should be. Tragedy shapes lives, but it doesn’t define them. Rebecca has to deal with a lot of the guilt that she has carried throughout the years, not only of being one of the few survivors, but also of her role in being the supposed inciting incident of one of the gunmen. There’s a lot to unpack here, which Loren doesn’t really spend much time on, but would make excellent discussion for a book group. Rebecca’s big secret shapes most of her life. She focuses on her career, trying to be the perfect daughter and career woman, taking pride in her efficient mask of productivity. The only problem is that she’s completely removed passion from her life in an effort to atone for past mistakes.

Wes Garrett has his own demons that he’s running from, but they are slightly less dramatic. After a series of poor choices, he’s now broke, teaching cooking classes at an alternative school for troubled youth. He was on the cusp of opening a fancy restaurant, having his photo in all the high end trade magazines, when a divorce completely knocked him off his feet, leading him to drown his sorrows in alcohol abuse. The catch is that the lawyer that represented his ex-wife is none other than Rebecca.

The romance between them goes in fits and starts, with both of them immediately recognizing their attraction to each other but trying to ignore it, while they are continually shoved into situations together out of coincidence. There’s great tension between them, from the agreement to be “friends who kiss” to the eventual “casual hook up” that turns into anything but.

Throughout the book, Wes has to deal with his tendency to run and hide in a bottle, and Rebecca has to come to terms with her PTSD and guilt over the shooting that occurred over a decade before. It all comes to a head with both of them having to set their fears aside in order to help a troubled kid.

If you are looking for tragedy porn here, look away. This book is not going to get into all of the whys and hows of school shootings, or any mass gun violence. This book focuses on the people who survive. And that’s where our attention should be.

free copy courtesy of NetGalley for review

Review: Brooklynaire

tl;dr: Exactly what I’ve come to expect from Sarina Bowen!

The Story:

Fans of Sarina Bowen’s Brooklyn Bruisers series have been waiting for this one since book one. Nate and Becca are well drawn characters from the beginning, and we get just enough of their story starting at the beginning to make it a tantalizing treat when we finally get to their story. In fact, the events of Brooklynaire and Pipe Dreams pretty much are concurrent.

Brooklynaire does go back in time a little bit, to when Nate’s company first starts, and gives a little backstory on why exactly he chooses to buy a hockey team. Of course, there’s a jilted ex-lover who hooks up with a hockey player, and of course there’s a showdown between his team and the team that guy plays for.

Technical Elements:

Overall, I loved this book. It was great seeing exactly what happened between Nate and Becca is the glimpses we got from the other books, and how exactly their relationship started. I felt like there had been slightly too much of a break in between when I read Pipe Dreams and this one, and so I kept wondering what connections I was missing since I’d forgotten some of that. Also, the conflict is a little shaky, and seems like Becca just doesn’t want to pursue a relationship for reasons, and Nate is unsure for other reasons.

Final Thoughts:

This book has the same amount of spice and humor that all the others of the Brooklyn Bruisers series have. I felt like the build up to the book made for a bit of let down, but that’s probably due to my inflated expectations. It was still a great book, and I recommend it highly.


Find a copy at your local library!

A free copy was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Easy Bake Lovin’

Georgia owns her own bakery, one that specializes in risque treats in the shape of certain anatomical areas, as a way to separate her life from her stuffy political family. Mike is just trying to get through the days since his ex-wife decided she didn’t want to be a mother anymore. When Mike goes to set up a security system in her bakery, the attraction is palpable. They quickly embark on a secret affair, and Mike is reluctant to bring her into his real life since he feels like he has to protect his kids.

Overall, this book was fairly enjoyable. The stakes are low and the whole thing is sorted out very quickly. It’s a short read. The most interesting part comes at the very end, when Mike’s sister comes back into town, bringing havoc and chaos with her. I imagine we’ll see more of her in the next book because she is also the ex of Mike’s co-worker, James. However, that little plot point had next to nothing to do with Mike and Georgia, except a tiny but of conflict where he admits something and his sister runs with it in an evil, kind of bitchy, way.

I did feel like this book had too much going on and not very much substance. There is a lot of plot, but most of it goes nowhere. Georgia’s high-powered and influential family is sort of an obstacle but not really. Mike’s kids are kind of making him reluctant, but not really.

It’s a cute, spunky story. I think it would make a great romantic comedy, but it was a little light on substance for a novel.

Review: Sit, Stay, Love

Kelsey is the lead adoption coordinator for High Grove Animal Shelter, and is feeling like she’s at a crossroads in her life. She left college abruptly after a humiliating post-coital rejection from her best male friend that sent her into a major depressive episode, but has been more or less content with her job. Her boss, Megan (who’s story was in the first book), has noticed her unease and a major project has fallen into her lap, and she eagerly assigns Kelsey to the task. What is the project, you ask? Rehabbing dozens of dogs who were in a cruel fighting ring.

Of course, Kelsey can’t do this alone, and ex-Marine Kurt ends up stepping in to help after an unfortunate meeting at the warehouse where the dogs are being temporarily held. (Yep, she barfs all over his shoes after being completely unprepared to see the injuries these poor pups have.) Kurt is just as reluctant to be rehabbed post-military as some of the dogs, but Kelsey’s calm nature and the old mansion that becomes the dog rehab headquarters begin to win him over.

Continue reading

Review: Love Game

tl;dr: sexy banter but what is the hero thinking?!

The Story:

I read a lot of sports romances, but I’m not sure this one entirely counts as one. The hero and heroine are two coaches for teams that aren’t connected except for the university they both belong to, and the entire story takes place during the off-season of both sports. Kate coaches the women’s championship winning basketball team, and is a celebrated sports star in her own right, felled by an injury that led her to coaching at Wolcott. Danny has fallen from grace, a former coach for a high ranking college team who got caught in a recruitment scandal that cost him his job, his reputation, and his girlfriend, who jumped ship and married his younger brother.

Fresh off of Kate’s team’s latest championship win, she’s blindsided when she finds out that not only did the school hire a new football coach with a sordid past, but they also offered him double what they are paying her. She’s frustrated and angry, but she can’t deny the sparks that fly when she spars with her newest coworker. Her friend Millie, who also happens to be the publicist for the university, is egging on the rivalry because it gets lots of page views and clicks since it’s obvious that they have raging chemistry.

Continue reading

Review: Barrelled Over

tl;dr: forgettable novel with too many characters and not enough heart

The Story:

Ava Grace Landy is a country superstar who rose to fame after winning a televised singing competition: essentially, she’s Carrie Underwood, although in this universe, she is competing with Ms Underwood for dollars and fans. Her new management team at her record label are threatening to kick her to the curb if she can’t reel in some male listeners, as apparently her entire fanbase is female.

In order to appease the directive, she decides to partner with her friend’s husband’s friend’s (phew!) bourbon distillery. It’s a unique boutique distillery, located in San Francisco rather than Kentucky, where most bourbon is made. Ava Grace decides rather quickly that she just has to have Beck, the guarded friend of her friend’s husband, who co-owns the distillery with two of his other friends (who no doubt have their own books complete with HEAs on the way).

Continue reading

Review: Man Card

tl;dr: fun romantic romp with a dash of danger

The Story:

Picking up almost exactly where we left off from Man Hands, Man Card starts with Ash and Braht competing to sell Tom Spanner’s giant house. They are in full-on competition, with Ash deliberately trying to sabotage him. Instead of getting angry, however, Braht is just getting turned on by her feistiness. He’s cool and calm about her attempts to thwart him, and she’s becoming frustrated; and not just about the house.

Ash has demons in her past that make her think that Braht’s shiny, preppy exterior is an act, and she refuses to be pulled in. But more and more, she gets to see that he’s a genuine guy. And when her ex-husband, whom she helped put in prison, is granted parole, she becomes fearful. So who does she run to? A very delighted Braht.

Continue reading

Review: The Ones That Got Away

tl;dr: a very touching story about love BLOOMING from the ashes of tragedy

The Story:

The Ones Who Got Away centers around a tragedy that happened 12 years before this book begins: the most deadly school shooting in America. It happened in the tiny fictional town of Long Acre, which is outside of Austin, TX. There’s a documentary being filmed about the incident, and so several of the survivors are coming back to talk on camera (or off camera) and be interviewed by the documentarian.

Olivia Arias and Finn Dorsey are two of those survivors, and this is a bit of a second-chance romance for them, as they sort of secretly dated in high school. In fact, they were “nearing second base” in a janitor’s closet when the shooting began. When the two heard the gunshots, Finn left the closet looking for his actual date, and he always has regretted this because he thinks it led Joseph, one of the gunmen, to Liv. However, Joseph didn’t shoot Liv, he just left her locked up in the closet. Instead, his mark appears to have been Finn’s date, Rebecca.

Continue reading

Review: Dance With Me

tl;dr: great friends with benefits story that has a bit of a draggy middle

The Story:

Dance With Me picks up a few months after the end of Take The Lead, and brings us to Natasha’s life post-Gina. The first book in this series ends with Gina, Natasha’s roommate, best friend, and coworker on The Dance Off (a fictional Dancing with the Stars analog) leaving behind the realm of reality TV to star in a Broadway musical and hop around the world with her former dance partner and lover, Stone. It becomes clear pretty early on in the book that Natasha depended on Gina for a lot of things, and now that her support system is gone, she’s scrambling to pick up the pieces of her life and make her own way.

Natasha feels her life caving in on itself when the roof of her apartment literally caves in, destroying much of her clothing and furniture and leaving her home unlivable. She is struggling to pay her bills, she’s teaching half a dozen (or more) dance classes, and she keeps making questionable choices regarding money and men. When her frequent booty call partner, Dimitri, calls her up in the middle of her cleaning up the wreckage of her apartment, she snaps at him, something she doesn’t tend to do.

So Dimitri shows up at her place, hoping to use the opportunity to show her that he’s more than a good time guy. He convinces her to move into his giant house and lavishes her with attention, although he continually puts his foot in his mouth and makes her feel like a tramp. Natasha is nervous about the whole arrangement, because if word gets to the producers of The Dance Off about her shacking up with not only a coworker, but one of the judges, she’ll be in danger of losing her job.

Continue reading

Review: Man Hands

tl;dr: super funny and dirty story with a fake relationship and a sex tape

The Story:

When Brynn and her gal pals meet for drinks in an effort to cheer her up post-divorce, they decide she needs to get back in the saddle, ASAP. Except they don’t trust her to choose the right man, since her tastes before now have tended toward more sensitive types. Her pals decide she needs a man’s man – one that can get her tousled and dirty, and get her ex-husband out of her mind.

She’s not totally on board until her friends drag her along to a party she doesn’t want to go to, and happens to see that ex-husband being handsy with another woman. She’s hurt, since the reason their marriage withered was because he wasn’t interested in her sexually. So, on the coaxing from her cheer-up squad, she literally runs and jumps on a man who she presumes is the gardener at the fancy property where the party is.

Continue reading