Category: Romance

Book Review: Tempt by Melanie Harlow

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Tempt (Cloverleigh Farms #9)
Pub Date: 21 November 2022
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Panda Rating:

(4 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

Yes, I’m a single dad who needs a nanny for the summer.

But hire the stranded runaway bride who shows up on my doorstep in a wedding gown with no references, no skills, and no experience?

No one is that desperate.

Except within twenty-four hours, down-on-her-luck Veronica Sutton manages to charm my kids, my family, and half the population of Cherry Tree Harbor into believing she’s perfect for the job.

And for me.

It’s not that I can’t see the appeal–those baby blue eyes? The endless legs? That mouth made for trouble? But I’ve got enough on my plate, raising two kids on my own and keeping the family business alive. I don’t have the time or the inclination to fall for an outspoken city girl.

So I should have kept my hands to myself.

Holding her in my arms was a big mistake. Even worse? Spending the night together. She ignites a possessive fire in me that I’m finding hard to snuff out.

But the most unforgivable? Growing attached to the sound of her laugh, the scent of her skin, and the way her body wraps around mine in the dark.

At the end of the summer, she’ll be gone.
And if I’m not careful, she might run away with my heart.

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Mini Review: Runaway Love by Melanie Harlow

Dini @ dinipandareads4 Comments

Runaway Love (Cherry Tree Harbor #1)
Pub Date: 4 May 2023
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Panda Rating:

(3.5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

Yes, I’m a single dad who needs a nanny for the summer.

But hire the stranded runaway bride who shows up on my doorstep in a wedding gown with no references, no skills, and no experience?

No one is that desperate.

Except within twenty-four hours, down-on-her-luck Veronica Sutton manages to charm my kids, my family, and half the population of Cherry Tree Harbor into believing she’s perfect for the job.

And for me.

It’s not that I can’t see the appeal–those baby blue eyes? The endless legs? That mouth made for trouble? But I’ve got enough on my plate, raising two kids on my own and keeping the family business alive. I don’t have the time or the inclination to fall for an outspoken city girl.

So I should have kept my hands to myself.

Holding her in my arms was a big mistake. Even worse? Spending the night together. She ignites a possessive fire in me that I’m finding hard to snuff out.

But the most unforgivable? Growing attached to the sound of her laugh, the scent of her skin, and the way her body wraps around mine in the dark.

At the end of the summer, she’ll be gone.
And if I’m not careful, she might run away with my heart.

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Book Review: Whiteout by Adriana Anders

Dini @ dinipandareads8 Comments

Whiteout (Survival Instincts #1)
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Pub Date: 28 January 2020
Genre: Romantic Suspense

Panda Rating:

(4 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

Angel Smith is finally ready to leave Antarctica for a second chance at life. But on what was meant to be her last day, the remote research station she’s been calling home is attacked. Hunted and scared, she and irritatingly gorgeous glaciologist Ford Cooper barely make it out with their lives…only to realize that in a place this remote, there’s nowhere left to run.

Isolated with no power, no way to contact the outside world, and a madman at their heels, Angel and Ford must fight to survive in the most inhospitable—and beautiful—place on earth. But what starts as a partnership born of necessity quickly turns into an urgent connection that burns bright and hot. They both know there is little chance of making it out alive, and yet they are determined to survive against the odds—and possibly, the world.

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Book Review: Don’t Go Baking My Heart by N.G. Peltier

Dini @ dinipandareads8 Comments

Don’t Go Baking My Heart (Island Bites #2)
Publisher: Piatkus
Pub Date: 21 June 2022
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Panda Rating:

(4 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

Devon King has a plan. An actual with bullet points and everything plan for his life. When he’s called out at work for never participating in any of the office activities he feels compelled to take part in the upcoming office bake off competition to prove he’s a team player, as making partner at his architectural design firm is top on his list of career goals. Only problem, he doesn’t know anything about baking. Failure is not an option so when his first choice for help is unavailable, desperate times lead him to ask Reba Johnson, assistant pastry chef to his brother’s girlfriend.

Reba’s been having fun texting the super serious Devon ridiculous cat pictures, for an entire month, but she’s surprised when he asks for her help with a potential baking crisis, since their conversations have been one sided until now. When her friends make a bet that even she can’t get the stoic Devon to fall for her charms, Reba sets out to prove them wrong and get Devon to have some fun.

As the competition draws closer, their sessions get hotter with a one night stand turning into two nights then three…Reba doesn’t fit into Devon’s carefully crafted life and as he tries to focus on winning the company contest, he discovers that sweet treats aren’t the only thing baking in the kitchen, and all his perfect plans are crumbling.

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Book Review: The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

Dini @ dinipandareads22 Comments

The Dead Romantics
Publisher: HQ
Pub Date: 28 June 2022
Genre: Contemporary Paranormal Romance

Panda Rating:

(5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

A disillusioned millennial ghostwriter who, quite literally, has some ghosts of her own, has to find her way back home in this sparkling adult debut from national bestselling author Ashley Poston.

Florence Day is the ghostwriter for one of the most prolific romance authors in the industry, and she has a problem—after a terrible breakup, she no longer believes in love. It’s as good as dead.

When her new editor, a too-handsome mountain of a man, won’t give her an extension on her book deadline, Florence prepares to kiss her career goodbye. But then she gets a phone call she never wanted to receive, and she must return home for the first time in a decade to help her family bury her beloved father. For ten years, she’s run from the town that never understood her, and even though she misses the sound of a warm Southern night and her eccentric, loving family and their funeral parlor, she can’t bring herself to stay. Even with her father gone, it feels like nothing in this town has changed. And she hates it.

Until she finds a ghost standing at the funeral parlor’s front door, just as broad and infuriatingly handsome as ever, and he’s just as confused about why he’s there as she is.

Romance is most certainly dead . . . but so is her new editor, and his unfinished business will have her second-guessing everything she’s ever known about love stories.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Death of a parent, grief, toxic relationship, cheating (briefly recounted), bullying (recounted), murder (recounted)

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Book Review: Perfect Match by Eliza McLane

Dini @ dinipandareads15 Comments

Perfect Match (Holiday Nights #2)
Pub Date: 6 February 2023
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Novella

Panda Rating:

(5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

They couldn’t be more different, but wild-at-heart (and in bed) Rose and sweet-but-square Tyler have to make it through a romantic Valentine’s weekend to win the prize at the end – all while proving they’re certainly, definitely,really not the perfect match the dating app proclaims them to be… right?

Rose
I went to my bestie’s over-the-top Valentine’s Day event alone, and when the first person I meet is straight-laced Tyler, I know I’m leaving alone, too. He’s all buttoned-up with nary a tattoo in sight, and he does math…for fun. In other words, definitely not my type. But when a dating app proclaims him my Perfect Match and offers up a pot of prize money if we spend a romantic weekend together, complete with an all-expenses paid luxury hotel and couples activities galore, I don’t need love as a motivator–that money will help save my fledgling, and failing, graphic design business. Now Tyler is looking at me like I’m the perfect box of chocolates, talking about indulging in one last fling before he settles down. Suddenly, I’m thinking Mr. All-Wrong-For-Me might be the perfect Mr. Right-Now.

Tyler
I went to a Valentine’s Day singles’ event looking for love and left with Rose, whose vivacious attitude and sunset-hued hair sets her apart from every woman I’ve ever dated. Even if her curvy body stirs up a wilder side in me I’ve always kept under wraps, she’s definitely not what I’m looking for in a long-term partner… or so I thought. But somewhere between hiking with goats, getting our nails painted, and Rose’s lessons on new and inventive ways to share our heart-shaped bed, I’m wondering if she might be just what I never knew I always needed. But when she’s determined to part when our wild weekend is done, how can I convince her we might be a perfect match after all?

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Book Review: Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake by Mazey Eddings

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Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake (A Brush With Love #2)
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Pub Date: 6 September 2022
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Panda Rating:

(5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

Lizzie has made endless mistakes. Kitchen fires, pyramid schemes, bangs (of the hair and human variety), you name it, she’s done it… and made a mess of it too. One mistake she’s never made is letting anyone get closer to her than a single hook-up. But after losing yet another bakery job due to her uncontrolled ADHD, she breaks her cardinal rule and has a two-night-stand that changes everything.

Once burned, twice shy, Rake has given up on relationships. And feelings. And any form of intimacy for that matter. Yet something about charming, chaotic Lizzie has him lowering his guard. For two nights, that is. Then it’s back home to Australia and far away from the pesky feelings Lizzie pulls from him. But when Lizzie tells him she’s got an unexpected bun in the oven, he’ll do whatever it takes to be a part of his child’s life… except be emotionally vulnerable, obviously. He’s never going to make that mistake again.

Through a series of mishaps, totally “platonic” single bed sharing, and an underground erotic baking scheme, Lizzie and Rake learn that even the biggest mistakes can have the most beautiful consequences.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Internalised ableism, sexual assault, on-page cheating recounted, unplanned pregnancy, abortion discussed, pregnancy, sex on-page

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Book Review: King of Wrath by Ana Huang

Dini @ dinipandareads8 Comments

King of Wrath (Kings of Sin #1)
Publisher: Piatkus
Pub Date: 20 October 2022
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Panda Rating:

(3.5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

She’s the wife he never wanted…and the weakness he never saw coming.

Ruthless. Meticulous. Arrogant.

Dante Russo thrives on control, both personally and professionally.
The billionaire CEO never planned to marry— until the threat of blackmail forces him into an engagement with a woman he barely knows.

Vivian Lau, jewelry heiress and daughter of his newest enemy.
It doesn’t matter how beautiful or charming she is. He’ll do everything in his power to destroy the evidence and their betrothal.
There’s only one problem: now that he has her…he can’t bring himself to let her go.

***

Elegant. Ambitious. Well-mannered.

Vivian Lau is the perfect daughter and her family’s ticket into the highest echelons of high society.Marrying a blue-blooded Russo means opening doors that would otherwise remain closed to her new-money family.

While the rude, elusive Dante isn’t her idea of a dream partner, she agrees to their arranged marriage out of duty.
Craving his touch was never part of the plan.
Neither was the worst thing she could possibly do: fall in love with her future husband.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

King of Wrath is a steamy billionaire/arranged marriage romance. It contains explicit sexual content, profanity, and mild violence. Recommended for mature readers only.

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Book Review: In the Weeds by B.K. Borison

Dini @ dinipandareads10 Comments

In the Weeds (Lovelight Farms #2)
Pub Date: 18 April 2022
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Panda Rating:

(4 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

Evelyn St. James isn’t the kind of woman you forget.

Beckett Porter certainly hasn’t. One incredible weekend in Maine, and he’s officially a man distracted. He’s not unfamiliar with hot and heavy flings. He knows how it goes. But Evie wove some sort of magic over him during their tumble in the sheets. He can’t stop thinking about her laugh. Her hand pressed flat against his chest. Her smiling mouth at his neck.

Also, her eyes. And her legs.

So when she suddenly appears on his farm as part of a social media contest, he is… confused. He had no idea that the sweet and sexy woman he met at a bar is actually a global phenomenon: social media influencer Evelyn St. James. When she disappears again, Beckett resolves to finally forget her and move on.

But Evelyn St. James has a problem.

Feeling disconnected from her work and increasingly unhappy, she’s trying to find her way back to something real. She returns to the last place she was happy, Lovelight Farms and the tiny town of Inglewild.

It has absolutely nothing to do with the hot farmer she spent two incredible nights with.

Nothing at all.

In The Weeds is a sweet and steamy second-chance romance about finding your happiness. It features a grumpy farmer, a no-nonsense social media influencer, a small town of busybodies, and four very cute kittens. In The Weeds is a standalone romance and is part of the Lovelight series.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Social anxiety

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