The Gist: Explore my End of Year Book Tag, diving into unread gems on my shelves, and my 2024 TBR priorities!
(more…)The End of Year Book Tag: 2024
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Book Haul: Nine New Books for December
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My December Book Haul includes both my hardcopy and ebook purchases made since the start of December. The haul totals 9 books (including ebooks). This haul has a mix-mash of books ranging from medical memoirs to feminist nonfiction and romantic comedies.
(more…)Flirty Yet Aggravating: By A Thread by Lucy Score
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Series: Standalone
Release Date: April 23, 2020
<strong>Synopsis:</strong>
Dominic was staring at me like he couldn’t decide whether to chop me into pieces or pull my hair and French kiss me.
Dominic
I got her fired. Okay, so I’d had a bad day and took it out on a bystander in a pizza shop. But there’s nothing innocent about Ally Morales. She proves that on her first day of her new job… in my office… after being hired by my mother.
So maybe her colorful, annoying, inexplicably alluring personality brightens up the magazine’s offices that have felt like a prison for the past year. Maybe I like that she argues with me in front of the editorial staff. And maybe my after-hours fantasies are haunted by those brown eyes and that sharp tongue.
But that doesn’t mean that I’m going to be the next Russo man to take advantage of his position. I might be a second-generation asshole, but I am not my father.
She’s working herself to death at half a dozen dead-end jobs for some secret reason she doesn’t feel like sharing with me. And I’m going to fix it all. Don’t accuse me of caring. She’s nothing more than a puzzle to be solved. If I can get her to quit, I can finally peel away all those layers. Then I can go back to salvaging the family name and forget all about the dancing, beer-slinging brunette.
Ally
Ha. Hold my beer, Grumpy Grump Face.
Author’s Note: A steamy, swoony workplace romantic comedy with a grumpy boss hero determined to save the day and a plucky heroine who is starting to wonder if there might actually be a beating heart just beneath her boss’s sexy vests.
<strong>Ending</strong>
HEA with Extended Epilogue (Children are grown)
<strong>Representation</strong>
No strong representations of the following:
• BIPOC characters
• LGBTQIA+ characters
• characters with a disability
And doesn’t address fatphobia
• BIPOC characters
• LGBTQIA+ characters
• characters with a disability
And doesn’t address fatphobia
<strong>Possible Triggers:</strong> Yes
• Allusions to sexual assault
• No OTT sad parts
• No OTT sad parts
<strong>Safety Rating:</strong> Safe
• No cheating
• No descriptive sex scene with OW/OM
• Does have OW and OM
– Heroine goes on a date and flirts with a fashion designer throughout story
– Ex-girlfriend of Hero is on cover of magazine and Hero meets up with her and her house
• Does have the Hero pushing away
• Does Not have a separation between the Heroine and Hero
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.
• No descriptive sex scene with OW/OM
• Does have OW and OM
– Heroine goes on a date and flirts with a fashion designer throughout story
– Ex-girlfriend of Hero is on cover of magazine and Hero meets up with her and her house
• Does have the Hero pushing away
• Does Not have a separation between the Heroine and Hero
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.
Format: Kindle Unlimited
Rating: 3.75/5 stars
(more…)The Real Deal by Lauren Blakely
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Series: Standalone
Release Date: July 10, 2018
<strong>Synopsis</strong>
April Hamilton wants you to know she hasn’t been on GigsforHire since that time she sold her futon after college. She doesn’t even spend that much time online. And even if she did, she would not be looking up personal ads. But going home alone for her family’s summer reunion is an invitation for every single relative to butt into her personal life. She simply can’t handle another blind date with the butcher, the baker or the candlestick maker from her hometown. So when she finds the GigsforHire ad for a boyfriend-for-hire, she’s ready to pay to play.
Heading Home and Need a Buffer? I’m the REAL DEAL.
Theo Banks has been running from the past for years. He’s this close to finally settling all his debts, and one more job as a boyfriend-for-hire will do the trick. He’s no gigolo. Please. He’s something of an actor, and he knows how to slip into any role, including pretending to be April’s new beau — the bad boy with the heart of gold.
Even if it means sleeping in close quarters in that tiny little bed in her parents’ inn. Even if it means spinning tales of a romance that starts to feel all too true. What neither one of them counts on is that amid the egg toss, the arm wrestling, and a fierce game of Lawn Twister that has them tangled up together, they might be feeling the real deal.
She only wanted to show her family once and for all that she had no need to settle down.
He didn’t expect to have the time of his life at her parent’s home.
They didn’t plan on loving every single second of the game.
But can a masterful game of pretend result in true love?
<strong>Ending</strong>
HEA
<strong>Representation</strong>
• LGBTQIA+ side characters
<strong>Possible Triggers:</strong> No
• No abuse.
• No OTT sad parts.
• No OTT sad parts.
<strong>Safety Rating:</strong> Safe
• No cheating
• No descriptive sex scene with OW/OM
• Does have the Heroine pushing away
• Does have a brief separation between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.
• No descriptive sex scene with OW/OM
• Does have the Heroine pushing away
• Does have a brief separation between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.
Format: Kindle
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
(more…)Becoming a Vincent (The Wild Ones, #1) by C.M. Owens
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Series: The Wild Ones*
Release Date: June 19th, 2017
<strong>Synopsis:</strong>
When you live in a place where “turbo speed” internet is a slight step above dial-up, men carry on nine-year beard-growing challenges out of stubborn pride, and your brothers do things like nail all your panties to the outside of your cabin just for funsies, you tend to be a little crazy. You can call it a “locational” hazard, if you will.
That’s Tomahawk for you.
We rank people based on just how crazy they are. And the four craziest families in town are called the Wild Ones.
I’m on the bottom tier of those, so technically I’m not as crazy as the other Wild Ones. In fact, if it wasn’t for my brothers and their endless antics, I wouldn’t be considered a Wild One at all. Ahem. Sure. We’ll go with that.
Anyway, I have a best friend who endures it all with me. Benson Nolans is my one, constant favorite person.
Without him, I’d probably go really crazy, and not the fun kind. It’d be ridiculous, after three years of a flawless friendship, to mess that all up by falling for him.
I mean, even if we did get a little too close one night, it’d be reckless endangerment. Even if we did suddenly feel the chemistry that’s always been there and stop toeing the line, it’d be a foolish risk to take.
It’d be stupid to start hoping a really fun, but completely irrational, night with zero inhibitions might accidentally happen.
Really stupid… Right?
<strong>Ending</strong>
HEA
<strong>Representation</strong>
No strong representations of the following:
• BIPOC characters
• LGBTQIA+ characters
• characters with a disability
And doesn’t address fatphobia
• BIPOC characters
• LGBTQIA+ characters
• characters with a disability
And doesn’t address fatphobia
<strong>Possible Triggers</strong>
• No abuse.
• No OTT sad parts.
• No OTT sad parts.
<strong>Safety Rating:</strong> Safe with Exceptions
• No cheating
• No descriptive sex scene with OW/OM
• Does have OW drama
– Hero proposed to OW in his past because she was pregnant
– He thought the kid of the OW was his, but he found out she was cheating on him with his twin brother the whole time and another OM
– The child is the OMs
– The OW is the hero’s step-sister (his mother married the OW father)
– The Hero didn’t tell the Heroine that the OW is his step-sister, so she finds out from the OW
• Does have unrequited OM drama
– The Heroine’s aunt consistently attempts to set up the Heroine with OM, and it makes the Hero jealous
• Does have the Hero and Heroine pushing away
• Does have a brief separation between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.
• No descriptive sex scene with OW/OM
• Does have OW drama
– Hero proposed to OW in his past because she was pregnant
– He thought the kid of the OW was his, but he found out she was cheating on him with his twin brother the whole time and another OM
– The child is the OMs
– The OW is the hero’s step-sister (his mother married the OW father)
– The Hero didn’t tell the Heroine that the OW is his step-sister, so she finds out from the OW
• Does have unrequited OM drama
– The Heroine’s aunt consistently attempts to set up the Heroine with OM, and it makes the Hero jealous
• Does have the Hero and Heroine pushing away
• Does have a brief separation between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.
Rating: 4.75/5 stars
*Each novel in the series is Standalone
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