Fake Empire Pub Date: 23 June 2022 Genre: Contemporary Romance
Panda Rating: (3.5 pandas)
📖SYNOPSIS
There’s rich.
Then there’s the Ellsworth family. The Kensingtons. American royalty.
Money buys power, and power always has a price. The fear of those who already possess both? Losing it. The best way to ensure keeping it? Alliances. And elites don’t marry down—they marry equal.
For Scarlett Ellsworth and Crew Kensington, that leaves one option: each other. Accepting that inevitability is very different from embracing it. That’s the only thing they agree upon.
It was meant to be a union for better and for business.
Instead, it challenges everything Scarlett and Crew thought they knew about themselves, their families, and most of all…each other.
The hottest college football safety in the nation just asked me to be his fake girlfriend.
And I just asked him to take my virginity.
Clay Johnson has the abs of Adonis and the deadly smirk of the devil, himself. There’s hardly a day he’s not headline material during football season, and never a day he isn’t a bullseye target for every girl on campus.
He used to be the easiest of all the players for me to wrangle as the Public Relations Coordinator, but after a nasty breakup with his high school sweetheart, he’s a mess.
And a complete pain in my ass.
We meet to discuss his behavior and review media relations standards. But when he witnesses how I fall to pieces in front of my guitar-toting crush, his wheels start turning. And he cooks up this absurd plan.
He helps me get noticed. I help him make his ex jealous. All by pretending to be in a relationship.
What he doesn’t realize is that this bookworm is a virgin, and far from versed in seducing a musician. So, to sweeten the deal, I convince him to help me — not just to get my crush’s attention, but to knock his socks off once I have it.
But the more I come unraveled at the hands of Clay Johnson, the more trouble I have discerning what’s fake and what’s undoubtedly real — particularly, the way my heart flutters every time that breathtaking man touches me.
We set the rules. We put the safeguards in place.
But they say rules are meant to be broken. They probably should have added that hearts are, too.
Blind Side is a fake dating college sports romance with “lessons” and opposites attract. It is a complete stand-alone.
TL;DR:This had the fake-dating and popular jock/bookish virginal nerd tropeswith a good bit of angst and a whole lot of funny, swoony and steamy moments in between!This was my first book by Kandi Steiner and I’m glad to say that I really enjoyed it! Blind Side was simply a good-time read and with how much I enjoyed it, I’m looking forward to checking out more by this author.
I really liked Giana and Clay together and I loved how their relationship evolved from something surface-level to something deeper and much more romantic. It’s so great when couples develop a strong friendship and the level of openness and trust that forms between these two made their romance that much stronger. There was a genuineness to their interactions that made this romance feel a lot more realistic!
Giana was an absolute sweetheart and a romance-loving bookworm. She’s shy and doesn’t see herself as anything special coming from a family of overachieving siblings but I loved how she grew confident in herself as the book progresses. She is an ‘innocent/virginal’ FMC but I don’t feel like she comes off as “not-like-other-girls” and actually, it was great to see her actually open up sexually (also thanks to romance novels)! I loved Clay and my heart went out to him in his situation. He’s a typical jock in many ways but he also has a people-pleasing side and would do anything to help the people he cares about even if it means putting himself last. It took him a while to get to a place where he’d put himself first and it did generate a fair bit of angst but it didn’t get overly dragged out and I loved the support he got from his friends and teammates to get him there. That grand gesture at the end was so swoontastic and honestly, sickeningly sweet and I loved it! 😍 Their chemistry was off-the-charts and the steamy moments were fire-hot thanks to Clay reading Giana’s romance novels and taking notes on what she likes! 😉🔥
Overall, this was a really fun sports romance though it did have a few more serious moments dealing with a toxic parental relationship and a bit of romantic angst at the end. Giana and Clay were really great characters who more than deserved their HEA and I’m already really looking forward to the next book in the series.
Special thanks to Grace Fell at Spark Point Studio and Balzer + Bray for providing an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!
Rust in the Root Publisher: Balzer + Bray Pub Date: 20 September 2022 Genre: YA Historical Fantasy
Panda Rating: (4 pandas)
📖SYNOPSIS
The author of the visionary New York Times bestseller Dread Nation returns with another spellbinding historical fantasy set at the crossroads of race and power in America.
It is 1937, and Laura Ann Langston lives in an America divided—between those who work the mystical arts and those who do not. Ever since the Great Rust, a catastrophic event that blighted the arcane force called the Dynamism and threw America into disarray, the country has been rebuilding for a better future. And everyone knows the future is industry and technology—otherwise known as Mechomancy—not the traditional mystical arts.
Laura disagrees. A talented young mage from Pennsylvania, Laura hopped a portal to New York City on her seventeenth birthday with hopes of earning her mage’s license and becoming something more than a rootworker.
But six months later, she’s got little to show for it other than an empty pocket and broken dreams. With nowhere else to turn, Laura applies for a job with the Bureau of the Arcane’s Conservation Corps, a branch of the US government dedicated to repairing the Dynamism so that Mechomancy can thrive. There she meets the Skylark, a powerful mage with a mysterious past, who reluctantly takes Laura on as an apprentice.
As they’re sent off on their first mission together into the heart of the country’s oldest and most mysterious Blight, they discover the work of mages not encountered since the darkest period in America’s past, when Black mages were killed for their power—work that could threaten Laura’s and the Skylark’s lives, and everything they’ve worked for.
⚠️CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS
Racism, use of racial slurs, slavery (historical), genocide (historical), violent death (on-page)
Hello, hello friends! I’m so excited to be back with another #UltimateBlogTour with @TheWriteReads gang for The Miraculous Sweetmakers: The Frost Fair by Natasha Hastings. Don’t forget to check out all the other bloggers participating in this tour: here or click on the banner below! 😍
Special thanks to HarperCollins for providing an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Falling for the hopeless romantic was never part of the plan…
Elle Van Helsing wants to start her life away from home. Constantly living under the shadow of her brother, she plans to find romance and survive on her own: even if it’s financially harder than she thought. Getting a job at a dive bar three doors down from her new place is the perfect solution. Well, it was until the owner has a family emergency and asks his nephew to help out in his absence. The guy she used to have a crush on until he ruined it.
Cal Holt might be a legend on the ice, but off it? He’s alone and likes to keep it that way. It’s easier to protect himself when he’s always a jerk, but the one person who gets under his skin is Elle. Torn between wanting to get to know her and pushing her away, he’s surprised when he learns she hates him. She looked at him differently the year before, and now that they’re stuck managing a bar for a few weeks, tensions rise.
She’s a hopeless romantic who wants grand gestures and sees the world through rose-colored glasses. He’s a grumpy cynic with a permanent scowl. She dreams of love, and he wants a one-night stand. She plans to build a life on campus, and he plans to leave and head to the NHL. Complete opposites in every way, they shift from enemies to friends…but Cal refuses to fall in love, and Elle deserves more. For the girl who never felt enough, and the guy terrified to feel, fear might ruin their chance at finding love.
Carter Beckett is the NHL’s resident badboy, top player both on the ice & in the bedroom, and quite possibly the sexiest man to ever grace my field of vision. But worst of all? He knows it.
He’s arrogant, self-centered, and the man doesn’t seem to know what a filter is, let alone how to use one. He’s had everything served to him on a silver platter, including endless strings of women, and apparently, I’m up next.
His only problem? I have no intention of falling for his shi—um, charm.
I have the solution to all my sexual frustrations in a drawer at home, and it’s far less complicated than Carter Beckett. Sure, he may be pretty, but he’s also a walking, talking reminder for you to wrap it before you tap it.
But then I start letting my guard down, and he starts showing me pieces of himself I had no intention of seeing. The bricks surrounding me may be tumbling down one by one, but I’m not sold yet, which means for the first time in his life, Carter’s the one begging.
For my time, my trust, for a single chance.
For me to just…consider him.
TL;DR:This is an ultra corny, cheesy sports romance that I wasn’t sure would work for me at the start because of some of the things the MMC was doing/thinking/saying, but Carter’s frantic golden retriever energy really grew on me by the end! This was a pretty angsty romance filled with plenty of drama (including OW drama) and it honestly could’ve been shorter but I had a lot of fun reading it! I’m really excited to read about the other guys on the team already—especially sweet, sweet Adam! 😍
What I Liked:
This was an all-around good time. Were the characters, interactions and dialogue OTT sometimes? Yes. But I genuinely laughed out loud several times and often had a grin on my face while reading. This friend group was definitely awesome even though they were slightly messy at times!
The chemistry was✨intense!✨ Carter and Ollie had an amazing connection that jumped off the page and only served to heighten the sexual tension as they circled each other and their feelings. This was pretty steamy (featuring a dirty-talking hero who loves to eat! 😉) and there were a lot of steamy moments but I think the author balanced all of it well with the sweeter and more romantic and swoony moments.
Speaking of swoony… When Carter falls, he falls hard! This man is an absolute SIMP for Olivia and of course, we loved to see it. If you love a simp hero that will do anything for his heroine, then you’ll definitely love Carter. He adored spoiling Olivia in the most loved-up ways, and though he’s goofy AF most of the time, when he decides to get romantic, he holds absolutely nothing back. It’s really cute and reading about how much he loves Olivia was swoontastic to the max! 😍
You’ll enjoy this if you’re a fan of sports romances, particularly hockey romance. I loved that this is set in Canada (the second one I’ve ever read!) but I also really loved the team dynamic between the guys. Carter, Emmett, Garrett and Adam had such great chemistry and their banter was everything I love about the team aspect of sports romance—they had me cracking up!
This brings me to the friendships and other relationships in this story and I loved all of them! The guys were a great group and I appreciated how they could genuinely count on each other’s support and also be vulnerable with each other. Ollie’s bestie, Cara, was *a lot* and I felt her character was slightly exaggerated at times, but she was a true ride-or-die bestie and I loved how you could feel that through the writing. The relationship between Carter and his mum + sister was hilarious and definitely made me understand where his goofiness came from, plus, I really liked Ollie’s dynamic with her brother Jeremy and his family (Alannah is adorable!).
However, my fave relationship was between Hank and Carter. OML, Hank was an absolute GEM and I would protect him at all costs. I love how he became a pseudo-father/grandfather figure to Carter when he lost his dad and their dynamic was just perfection! Even better, he loved his steamy romances and even formed a mini-book club with Ollie! 😂 It was too cute.
What I Struggled With:
Carter says he’s not immature and he’s just goofy but there were moments when that line was very thin, very blurred or just wholly demolished. I wish he took things a little more seriously at times but I suppose when it really counted, he was. His thoughts about Ollie would also sometimes start out very sweet but end very weirdly sexual—like, it was too much and it felt weird to read it.
This romance was very swoony but sometimes also trod the line of being overly cheesy for me. I do enjoy cheesy romance but it got a bit much for me here when the characters kept repeating the same mushy things and continued to spout endless professions of love mostly because they kept repeating it over and over again!
The drama was a lot and it was mostly OW drama—which I hate—and I didn’t really see the point of it. Why was this woman such a horrible human being and fully obsessed with ruining their relationship when she already had a hockey bf but decided to ruin her own relationship too? It only served to fuel Ollie’s insecurities and to bring up Carter’s past but it felt unnecessary!
Note: these reviews were originally posted on my Goodreads in June and July 2022 (oldest first)
The Charm Offensive Publisher: Atria Books Pub Date: 07 September 2021 Genre: Contemporary Romance
Panda Rating: (4 stars)
📖SYNOPSIS
In this witty and heartwarming romantic comedy—reminiscent of Red, White & Royal Blue and One to Watch—an awkward tech wunderkind on a reality dating show goes off-script when sparks fly with his producer.
Dev Deshpande has always believed in fairy tales. So it’s no wonder then that he’s spent his career crafting them on the long-running reality dating show Ever After. As the most successful producer in the franchise’s history, Dev always scripts the perfect love story for his contestants, even as his own love life crashes and burns. But then the show casts disgraced tech wunderkind Charlie Winshaw as its star.
Charlie is far from the romantic Prince Charming Ever After expects. He doesn’t believe in true love, and only agreed to the show as a last-ditch effort to rehabilitate his image. In front of the cameras, he’s a stiff, anxious mess with no idea how to date twenty women on national television. Behind the scenes, he’s cold, awkward, and emotionally closed-off.
As Dev fights to get Charlie to open up to the contestants on a whirlwind, worldwide tour, they begin to open up to each other, and Charlie realizes he has better chemistry with Dev than with any of his female co-stars. But even reality TV has a script, and in order to find to happily ever after, they’ll have to reconsider whose love story gets told.
Dev and Charlie absolutely charmed me! 🥹 They have an almost instant connection that slowly develops into a heartwarming romance. My heart hurt for Charlie as he struggled to believe that he deserved love because all his life people have treated him as “less- than” due to his OCD and anxiety.I loved watching him slowly learn to not be apologetic for being who he is. Dev is a hopeless romantic who is scared to accept love out of fear of being abandoned or rejected. He puts on a “Fun Dev” persona pretending everything is fine despite suffering from chronic depression. Not only did I love the diversity and LGBTQIA+ representation in this book, but I thought the mental health, OCD and anxiety rep was also really well addressed and handled sensitively.
Their romance was incredibly soft and sweet with super swoontastic moments that had me reading with heart-eyes. 😍 There’s a forbidden romance element which really upped the stakes and increased the tension. I appreciated that they did what they needed to do for themselves first to have a healthy relationship. As much as I enjoyed this though, I admit that I expected to love it much more than I did. There were moments when I felt disconnected from the characters and romance. It was enjoyable enough but when I had to put it down, I also didn’t feel compelled to pick it back up again immediately! Still, I did enjoy this a lot and I would definitely love to read parts of it again because they made my heart very happy!
Two strangers share a romantic night together only to discover months later they’re professional rivals in this grumpy meets sunshine romance novella from the acclaimed author of How To Fail at Flirting.
Gia loves her job as a professor, even when it means dealing with an elusive rival academic who’s made it his mission to criticize her work. When she meets him for the first time, she’s shocked to learn they’ve met before. Months earlier, they shared a perfect New Year’s Eve together in an airport during a weather delay.
After months of working together, Felix still can’t believe the person whose research he’s been challenging is the same captivating woman he kissed that night. The two couldn’t be more different. Gia is bubbly, friendly, and extroverted and drives ordered, serious Felix nuts.
Now the two have been assigned to embark on a five-school tour for work. Gia and Felix can’t imagine a travel partner they’d enjoy less until they feel the sparks fly over their shared armrests, security mishaps, and a shared hotel room. They’ll need to decide if they can manage their professional tension, or risk missing the connection of a lifetime.
⚠️CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS
Workplace misogyny, sexism
This wasn’t anything particularly special but it was exactly what I wanted when I went in search of a fast in-between read this morning. This was my first Denise Williams book so I didn’t have any expectations going in but I’m happy to say that I enjoyed her writing and characters!
Gia and Felix are your typical grumpy-sunshine trope in a work-nemesis-to-lovers romance situation. Their meet-cute on NYE at the airport is like what those romantic dreams are made of only for those fantasies to crumble to dust a few months down the line when they meet again and realise they’re enemies in the professional field in real life. These two have a clear attraction to each other that I really enjoyed seeing grow as they spend more time together. Felix is a pretty closed book and I felt the win alongside Gia every time her sunshine personality managed to elicit even the smallest of grins from him. Despite their opposite personalities they clicked so well and I loved how Gia encouraged Felix to be more relaxed and open, and I loved the way he grounded her. They were so accepting of each other and it was really sweet!
I’d have loved to read more about them but even with this being a novella, I still really enjoyed seeing how they evolve and grow together. This also served big on that happy ending. Was it a little cheesy? Heck yes but it was so perfectly Gia but I loved that it was Felix who came up with the idea for her 😂 They’re so cute!
Have you read either of these contemporary romances or are they on your TBR? If you did, what did you think of them?
Hello, friends! I’m excited to share my thoughts and favourite quotes today for Well, That Was Unexpected by Jesse Q. Sutanto on the blog tour hosted by TBR & Beyond Tours.
Thanks to Delacorte Press for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Click here or on the banner above to check out the rest of the fantastic bloggers on tour!
Hello, friends! It’s my stop on the TBR & Beyond Tours for Omega Morales and the Legend of La Lechuza by Laekan Zea Kemp and I’m excited to share my thoughts and favourite quotes with you today!
Thanks to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Click here or on the banner above to check out the rest of the fantastic bloggers on tour!
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