definitely, possibly, maybe

i loved and adored the black bird of the gallows  and this short novella lets us see some of the action from reece's point of view. we see reece witness the fatal car crash and his horror when he realizes that angie has been following him. his horror that she knows that he is something different. his pain that she doesn't remember him the way he remembers her when they were children. we see reece meet with his fellow harbingers and the decision they make to allow reece and angie to get closer. they knew there was danger in that. but they also had to let things play out. and we meet michael and learn of dresden. and those small things will come into play in keeper of bees. and i seriously can't wait to tell you all about how i'm in love with that book too. mostly i was just excited to inhabit this world again. ** i received an advance reader copy of cleaner of bones as a newsletter subscriber. 

the third book in the fated series, seeking fate , finds the fate changer, daisy layne, looking for the last of the van burens. his fate is tied to hers. his death will lead to hers. so she makes a trek across europe evading the thorns, a crazed religious sect out to kill fate changers, with her internet friend/european guide/love interest, andrei. andrei knows what daisy is. and even though it can be dangerous to be close to her, he is already half in love with her when they first meet. too bad they both feel awkward without the safety of a computer monitor between them. it takes a while for them to figure out how to be with one another in person. that they are on this crazy journey only adds to that. this book was enjoyable, but the big twist is given away too early. i'm pretty sure most readers figure out at the same moment i did who the last van buren heir really is. and then there was the unrealistic way these two kids traveled across europe. not just...

to be fair, i haven't read the previous two books in this series, so perhaps i would have found ariel a bit more charming in the opening pages of kiss the girl  if i had those books under my belt. she's kind of horrid and is yelling at literally everyone for no good reason at the start. and it's not that i don't appreciate a heroine who has balls and attitude, but like screaming at your friends for calling you on the phone doesn't seem like the best way to keep people in your life. but this does allow us to see her growth. she's still loudmouthed and crazy and somewhat inappropriate, but she also has a heart and the moments where she's vulnerable are absolutely precious. although to be honest my actual favorite moments are every time eric opens his mouth and says the exact right thing. like oh my god, there has never been a character better at saying exactly the right thing that makes you want to swoon at the fact that he's dreamy and sweet and kind ...

we first met matt cannon and sabrina cross in hot asset , and even then there was something between them. it was chemistry but also more. it was maybe hate but it was tinged with love. the bickering and the eyerolling clearly meant something that neither of them wanted to admit.  in hard sell  matt needs a girlfriend when a reporter catches him behaving semi-badly at a bachelor party and the perception is worse than reality in this case. but the only women he could remotely tolerate spending time together as a pretend girlfriend is sabrina. she's the only woman he can trust to not want more with him. because they hate each other, right? but the truth is that hate covers up a whole host of emotions. it's anger, pain, heartache. it's wanting to protect their hearts from feeling more for the one person they know is capable of breaking down all their walls. being forced to spend all the time together takes down those defenses and soon it is clear that matt and ...

the self-titled the earl of london , logan steele meets his match in his feisty next-door neighbor, darcy westbury. she's connected to louise bay's other novels, and those characters do pop up here, but you don't need the full backstory in order to enjoy this. i think my first impressions of logan and darcy weren't great. i loved the scene where they met on the grounds of logan's newly purchased estate and kind of wish the book had started there. the man-whore who treats women like crap alpha hero is so not my jam. and the thing is, for the most part, logan isn't that. and the root of darcy and logan's conflict isn't that he was a man-whore, it's that he's a weekender who doesn't truly respect locals. darcy wants to build up her small village. she wants it to thrive, and more weekenders who spend their lives away from the village is the last thing she wants. on the one hand, it's a noble goal. on the other hand, she's so frea...

here's the thing, i loved this book. alex and bailey are 100% perfect for each other, and a huge part of that is their incredible friendship. their problem is that they keep too much to themselves. the failure to communicate in love and other secrets  is spectacular. it's so frustrating. because they keep talking at cross-purposes and assuming the wrong thing, and i blame this a little more on bailey than alex who is a stupid boy in love with his best friend and as a stupid boy already starts with a handicap when it comes to communicating. but bailey keeps assuming she knows what he's going to say and says the worst possible thing all the time. honestly, it's a wonder these two get past it because the all the cross-talk is seriously super stressful. but they are such great characters. so even though alex is a completely stupid boy and bailey is a crazy insecure girl they absolutely belong together and when they get it right it's so delightful. also, alex's...

when josh im first meets hazel camille bradford he is propositioned and puked on. it's college and their encounters don't get any less embarrassing. he walks in on her having sex with his roommate. she sends him a drug-addled message after wisdom tooth removal asking for an extension on a paper for the class he's the ta for. and then years go by and she doesn't see him until she'd at her friend emily's house for a party and is shocked to realize that josh is emily's brother. josh is a little down because his long-term relationship isn't quite working out. so hazel decides to cheer him up and become his best friend. when it's revealed that his girlfriend had been cheating on him, hazel decides that what they need to do is set each other up with blind double dates. hazel knows she's quirky and a lot to take but she figures it's time to start dating again and this is the perfect excuse. as each date goes comically, horrifically wrong, it...

ruin of stars concludes the story of sal, the gender fluid pickpocket that began in mask of shadows . the series needs to be read in order or it won't make much sense. there's a lot of characters and a lot of world-building mythology and at times i found it confusing. but sal as a character is so compelling. you can't help rooting for them as they set about avenging their family. the relationship between sal and elise continues to grow and deepen. there are still plenty of twists and turns, but where things end is pretty much exactly where they should. i recommend binge-reading this series because the two books are so closely linked. but it's enjoyable and the characters are wonderful. you can't help rooting for them. **ruin of stars will publish on august 28, 2018. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/sourcebooks fire in exchange for my honest review.

the truth about lies  is a gritty, emotional love story featuring two people who have lost everything and never expected to find hope and a second chance in each other. both cora and penn have secrets. secrets they hold close to the chest because the revelations can destroy everything they've begun to build together. cora plays a game call truth or lie? where you can ask a question and respond in a lie. but you have to acknowledge it as such. but there are questions that are never asked, lies that are never spoken. and the truth behind all of that can blow everything up. the truth about lies builds up a house of cards, just to tumble it all down. it's the necessary backstory to the story that will reveal all, the truth about us. and luckily we only have to wait two weeks for that. **the truth about lies will publish on august 23, 2018. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/inkslinger pr in exchange for my honest review. keep reading for more...

i was like 30% in when i realized this book was the second book in a series and that i knew a bunch of these characters from the first book , which i read and enjoyed. part of the issue was, that quite a bit of time has passed from the events of the first book to the second. the lead hero was a sixteen-year-old, and now he is a man, a real cowboy. brice harper is kind of amazing. he's immediately all-in with the heroine, naomi walker, who is only back in town to visit her mom and best friend, whitney. from the first night of her visit, it's clear that things are not right. whitney is tense and afraid, and when she's attacked by a man who comes from the shadows and then proceeds to attach naomi, it's obvious that she knows more than she is letting on. brice steps in to save naomi, and from that moment their fates are entangled. as the attacks become more dangerous, whitney reveals the extent of evil happening behind the scenes at the rodeo. naomi and brice ...

i mean, it's a truth universally acknowledged that if someone is writing a jane austen retelling, i'm going to read it, right? and undue influence  retells one of my absolute favorite of jane's stories, persuasion . while this is not the first persuasion  retelling i've ever read, it's the first that switches up the genders and has two heroes as romantic leads. even though it's moved to a contemporary setting, a lot of the socioeconomic commentary in austen's original story come into play here. freddy wentworth is the boy from the wrong side of the tracks who everyone thought would burn out. but after a nearly decade away from bishop's glen, he's back in town after his sister buys the kellynch winery away from the elliot family. even if adam elliot hadn't broken his heart all those years ago, freddy would be wary of being back in bishop's glen, but re-encountering adam has him all tied up in knots. this tied-up feeling goes both wa...

best friends liam and chelsea have never crossed any lines in their friendship. but that doesn't mean that they haven't been thinking about it. and now that chelsea is back in san diego for work reasons, she's determined to either get her crush under control or risk everything and tell liam what she wants. she's just not sure which way to go because she's terrified that he doesn't want her. he's never given her any signs that he's thought of her any way but platonically. and yet... until we're more  puts liam and chelsea in close quarters and soon it's pretty clear that there is no denying what lies between them. it's clear that they love each other truly, madly, deeply and that if they weren't so afraid of risking their absolutely beautiful friendship, there would be no story at all. but they are afraid of risking it, and it makes complete sense that they are scared. because the friendship between these two characters is a really swe...

a deadly business  is a wonderful romantic suspense story. when justin kelly is assigned to protect marissa hayes from a big, bad terrorist. she's been in witness protection since her cover was blown the last time the cia tried to bring him down. since he's known her, justin has been drawn to marissa. when he learns the extent of her bravery he's even more attracted to her. and he'll also do anything and everything to keep her safe. when she's made by two customers at her art gallery, marissa is forced into hiding with justin. when their hiding place coincidentally ends up being the one place the big bad shows up to, justin and marissa must engage in a mission to save their lives as well as all the other innocent lived with them on the private island. this suspense story offers some genuine tension and action while justin and marissa play a game of cat and mouse with the big bad on the island. it's just a really fun rea...

we met jake and alexis early on in the whiskey and weddings series. jake is one of the co-owners of the stag distillery and alexis is dean's little sister. i wouldn't recommend reading maybe for you  without reading the previous books in the series, because there is a lot of context and backstory that you'd miss otherwise. in some ways, this is a friends-to-lovers story, but it's also about getting a second-chance-at-love, albeit with someone other than the original person you fell in love with. alexis spends a large chunk of the novel grieving her former partner, nathan, who died in a helicopter crash weeks before their wedding. jake helps her through that grief. he does so not because he's been pining for her. or because they were longstanding friends. he helps her through it because he's a good guy. and he enjoys being a good friend to alexis. that first year of mourning, jake's friendship becomes something alexis depends on. and when she comes bac...

the cowboy meets his match is sarah mayberry's latest novel. and as usual she knocks it out of the park. c.j. cooper (also known as cassidy jane) is one of a very select handful of women to quality for bronc riding on the professional rodeo circuit. as a woman she's got to keep a wary eye on her fellow riders, because not all of them are too happy about her inclusion on the circuit. when she meets jesse carmody she senses an immediate attraction, but there's no way she's going to give into it. she doesn't want a reputation about anything other than her amazing skills at riding bucking broncos. jesse is pretty much struck dumb in c.j.'s presence. that's why he fails to speak up when she's being insulted by a sexist competitor. his fascination with her doesn't wane the more he gets to know her. both c.j. and jesse have family baggage to sort through, and this adds some real emotional heft to their love story. i enjoyed this immensely. and i ki...

pretending to be engaged to your former crush who has no idea that he's met you before while on assignment for the job you consider to be the stepping stone for the real job you're after is some complicated stuff. add the crazy sexual tension and unresolved self-image issues and you've got a cocktail of crazy waiting for you. the honeymoon trap  is supposed to ensnare a popular resort that seems to be up to no good. missing items, misplaced reservations, implied blackmail, it's all part of the investigation. reporters-slash-neighbors lucy and william find more than they bargained for. because that fake relationship becomes something real. but william is in the process of finalizing his takeover of his family's television station, and soon he'll be lucy's boss on top of everything else he is already to lucy. he just has no idea how far back things go. it takes them a while to sort it all out. for a while they're too close, too crazy about each other...

you guys, i haven't read any prior books in this series, but i feel like   darkest heart  might be the pinnacle. dommiel and anya are so freaking swoonworthy. he's a high demon who has turned on his kind. he helps humans and angels and roams the earth alone except for his familiar, a raven named puck. his lair is awash in literature, and he quotes shakespeare and coleridge. when his blood vow is called upon by genevieve, he is paired with the angel, anya. anya is desperate to find the archangel uriel, because she believes only he can save her from the poisonous bite she received from simian, a devil prince. there is a lot of mythology. i liked it, but more than anything i loved the love story between dommiel and anya. they are made for each other. his dark complements her light. his irreverence brightens her devotion. his love is perfect for hers. they shouldn't work together as well as they do. their story should end in tragedy, and it very nearly does. but then ...

interested in some pretty? i love rebecca yarros's books, and her latest military romance is a do not miss. check out the description and cover and buy links after the jump...

wild hunger  kicks off a spin-off series to the chicagoland vampires series—which full disclosure i haven't read—and features the only vampire child ever born, elisa sullivan. after years in paris, she is back in chicago for peace talks that are intended to solve the violence erupting between the vampires in europe. the supernatural community is unsettled. and the fairies seem to be in the thick of things. when one of elisa's long-time friends is falsely accused of murder, she starts investigating even as this act could threaten the fragile peace the chicago vampires enjoy with their human counterparts. if this weren't all, elisa is finding herself drawn to connor keene, her childhood nemesis. the self-proclaimed prince of werewolves, connor is cocky and knows exactly how to push her buttons. connor is also the one person in the world who knows her secret. elisa isn't a normal vampire. there is a magic locked within her, a monster that increases her p...

this cover is super sexy, i think. take closer a look after the jump.

meghan march's latest novel takes us away from the gritty new orleans she'd built and to a town where rivalries run deep and nothing is as it seems. richer than sin  starts us out with lincoln rischoff objecting to the marriage that whitney gable is in the middle of celebrating. their families' objections, the longstanding animosity, all the reasons they shouldn't be together mean nothing to him. what matters to him is whitney. she is his. he is hers. those are the only truths he knows. but ten long years pass before he sees her again. and while both lincoln and whitney have changed and grown there are two things that remain true. the chemistry between them and all the reasons they can't be together. there are twists and turns aplenty, and knowing meghan march, plenty more to come. told both in the past and the present, this love story is so epic. i can't wait for more, i am loving these two and am absolutely dying for what is bound to be a not-too-...

jenna is a city girl, an up-and-coming photojournalist who is making a name for herself in the city. when her boss sends her on assignment to a small town in the poconos, she's excited to catch her breath from the fast pace of her life out on the big mountain . when she meets gil at the local festival she is taken in by his good looks, his overpowering masculinity and his mountain man ruggedness. what follows is a blazing hot night of passion. and a super awkward morning after. a couple of months later, gil is caught up in a murder mystery and jenna is his alibi. she's also pregnant. there's quite a lot they have to figure out. but gil is totally swoonworthy, from the moment he learns he's going to be a father he is all in on jenna. he wants to make things work and be a family from the outset. and it's really enjoyable to read how he makes that work. **big mountain will publish on august 13, 2018. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of candi kan...

ellie mcdonald is trying to get exposure therapy for rejection. so asking out her secret crush, up-and-coming baseball star jake armstrong should easily help with that. except in sliding home , all jake wants to do is give ellie everything she wants. when their old-fashioned date ends up on the news and ellie being excoriated in the press, jake comes up with a plan to save her. they'll pretend to be serious, except there's no pretending. they are serious about each other. from early on it's clear that they are each other's perfect match, and they just have to sort through their emotional baggage in order to come out okay on the other side. for a steamy category read, jake and ellie have some pretty hefty issues to work on. but it's very satisfying to see them figure out their issues and come out stronger on the other end of things. all in all, this is a great addition to the locker room diaries series. **sliding home will publish on august 13, ...

megan shuttlekrump, is the adopted daughter of a family of circus act performers. kind of like cousin marilyn in the munster family, megan is the straight character keeping everyone in line. accidentally in love with the pilot opens with a surprise party for megan's birthday, and ben rutledge is roped into delivering the cake. ben who is introverted and shy and overwhelmed by the intensity of her family, but he's intrigued by megan. and a drunken night at the bar ends up with a quickie vegas wedding that neither of them remembers. and while they try to piece together what happened that night, the only other thing they know for sure is that the condom broke. deciding to stay married for the length of ben's military leave while they figure out where they got married and if they are pregnant seems to be the most logical step. but soon playing house and being together feels so real. and both of them are afraid to admit that it's what they want. finding their words...

the something borrowed series continues with be mine, sweetheart , and it's business owner, kelly barrow's turn to find love. she'd found it once before, but her fiancé, ray, was killed in action and she didn't think she'd ever be ready to look for it again. but it's been ten years, and she's ready now. she's just not sure how her best friend, christian ryan is going to react. after all, ray was his best friend too. but she doesn't expect him to keep interfering in her love life. she doesn't expect to keep thinking of him. she doesn't expect to see him differently than she ever did before. she didn't expect it to become so complicated with the man she's always counted on being by her side. chris doesn't know why kelly dating gets him so mixed up. or, he knows, but he's not ready to admit it out loud. because the truth is, it's always been kelly for him. but he had ceded her to ray so long ago, and he isn't sure ...

when prima ballerina jessica carmichael and rodeo circuit star matt walker both suffer acl tears to their knees, it's very possible that their careers might be over. but they aren't ready to face the end of the thing they love most, so they find an exclusive rehab/pt program and find themselves partnered up. cowboys need not apply  finds jessica and matt battling each other and bringing out the best in the other. and the more time they spend together the clearer it is that in spite of all their many differences, jess and matt are meant to be. all you need to do is figure out the logistics of a city girl and country boy falling in love and making a life together. their love is one that builds up gradually and the relationship feels so strong and steady that when they do have their dark moment, it's hard because there isn't a lot of book left to resolve everything. jessica's mother plays an interesting role in the dark moment, and no role at all in the resolutio...

wade roberts is sick of everyone in cape harmony managing his love life. he had love before and when his wife died of cancer, he couldn't imagine letting himself fall for someone else like that. his sister's best friend, arden pearson, finds the whole thing slightly hilarious. but then she loves to needle wade every chance she gets. when wade uses arden as an excuse as to why he can't go out with yet another eligible single lady, it's as if lightning has struck. he and arden can pretend to be dating. arden thinks the whole thing is preposterous, but when her ability to close a job depends on her being engaged, she changes her tune quickly. pretty soon the fake engagement starts to feel real. and since they are stuck with each other through the duration of this fake business, they decide that being real while fake is the way to go. and then everything is too complicated by feelings they refuse to admit and truths that hurt to feel. sorting themselves o...

so it's my birthday and entangled publishing put the like what feels like entire embrace line on sale. if you don't know the imprint, it's the new-adult romance line featuring all genres and tropes. i know new-adult bounces in and out of being a real thing, but i really enjoy it so i'm excited to take a look and add to my impossibly large tbr. via GIPHY keep reading for more information on the sale...

i love griffin's tracers series, so i knew i was in for a good thriller with desperate girls . it's also the start to a new series and i have to say the guys at wolfe security are super dreamy. there are enough twists and turns to the plot that laying it all out is no fun in a review. but the story begins with a judge being murdered and the belief that it's revenge for how she handled a former case. brynn was an ada on her team and her boss believes her life is in danger and hires wolfe security. brynn is super independent and is not happy about the constraints of being watched over. this creates a lot of conflict and is also a personality trait that is somewhat frustrating for the reader. i get wanting to be independent. but sometimes you have to trust others. and it felt like her insistence that the danger was being overblown was willful stubbornness that detracted from her being an actually highly intelligent, strong woman. she frustrates her team leader, erik....

the latest book in the pennington series, sleepless in scotland , follows the adventures of younger sister phoebe. she's a woman ahead of her time, and is fiercely independent and strong-willed. she has been secretly working as a journalist and ends up in the vaults of edinburgh looking for a source. there she encounters a murderer. and there she is saved by captain ian bell. she has admired him for years, he was the older brother of her dearest friend who never noticed she existed. but he does now. from her close call he becomes obsessed with her safety. he's already experienced one loss that he feels to blame for, he cannot handle another. and the more time he spends with phoebe, the more he really sees her. enough to know that the loss of her would be devastating. of the pennington siblings, only millie has a significant presence. i can only imagine that at some point we'll get a proper story for her. but as it is, phoebe's story is really enjoyable. and i part...

in down with love , divorce attorney max meets his match in wedding planner charlie. he starts off cocky, assured of his ability to be what women want. but charlie has seen his type before. and she wants the forever. so she's not going to give max the time of day. but as their paths cross as charlie works to plan max's brother's wedding, she starts to see other sides to max's personality that don't jibe with her idea of him as a cutthroat divorce attorney out to ruin marriages and against happily ever afters. max isn't against happy ever afters per se, he was just badly burned. and while he doesn't see the best side of marriage in his job, he's actually a guy who goes out of his way to make sure that his clients are women who have more to gain from a divorce than staying in an unhappy marriage. honestly, having had friends leave bad marriages or marriages that weren't right for them, the kind of service max provides is wonderful and necessary. ...

echoes  is like lost  meets the bourne identity  for teens. i should look up the deal notice on publisher's marketplace *  and see if that's what it was pitched as. i don't want to give too much away of the plot, because it's trippy and confusing and also this two-person-play/love story between fiona and miles as they try to figure out what's happening and where they are. like lost there are two separate timelines and both tell a compelling story and you wonder if and when they will ever intersect. and if you do finally figure out what's going on, do you know or is there going to be some new twist. it's well-established that i love lost , so this story was right up my alley. but if you don't like mind-bending, twisty stories you might want to skip this one, because echoes is all about the twists. *it was pitched as lost meets the maze runner . i don't know the maze runner to know what that means, which is why i went with the bourne identity...

texas politician and heir to an oil fortune, chase ferguson has one regret in life, and that is turning his back on the love he felt for environmental activist miriam andrix. they were opposites and lived in different states and there was no way things could work between them. but in a snowbound scandal   it's ten years later and the press is digging into his past as he runs for reelection, and then finds himself in the same town with mimi (it's where their love story began) and their paths cross at the grocery store. she wants to tell him off except she can't help feel the attraction between them. they're older and wiser and can perhaps enjoy the attraction—especially while stranded together in the middle of a blizzard—without all the attendant drama. except life likes to throw curveballs just when you think everything is all figured out, and mimi and chase will need to sort out their feelings and their relationship status when all is said and done. ...

the thing about forbidden lovers  is that you have to believe that the heroine is so gullible so as to believe that her ex-boyfriend and father of her child is not the man standing before her. ok, she was told he was dead, but then all she says is you look like someone i used to know. and i don't think she even says it that directly to his face. this is a nice second-chance-at-love story, although the craziness going on with his dad and angel and the links to her past and his siblings is all a bit much. bur having julia and matt reconnect and figure out the lies that brought them to this point is still enjoyable. **forbidden lovers  published on august 1, 2018. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/harlequin romance (desire) in exchange for my honest review.

the third installment of the play dates series,    a ring for rosie , is one of those books i was really excited to read and then while reading wasn't sure how to stop the painful groaning. i think the basic fact that james and rosie seemed to be hopeless at communicating was just too much for me. they spend most of the novel avoiding each other and talking to others about their lack of relationship. well, no kidding they lacked a relationship, we barely saw them on the page together. most of the novel things between them are very, very bad. she thinks he isn't interested. he's got his awful baby mama and his business partners think he should put the moves on her to drive her away. they made him promise to stay away from rosie as if she weren't a fully functioning human who could make her own decisions. meanwhile, their significant others convince rosie that she needs to date others and i'm not sure if it's to make him jealous or to ge...

i’ve already read and reviewed the e-book for surrender . and i’ve ordered the paperback. but i have to admit that on audio these books are something special. the duet style narration is perfection. this story is perfection. i  loved gareth before. but gareth as brought to life by will watt is beyond amazing. every catch in his speech, the way he allows the emotional weight of the words shine through in his voice is just everything. piper goodeve is cast perfectly as sloan, and her vulnerability and strength are brought to life just so. and I love that charlotte cole is handling most of the british voices. it would have been difficult to hear someone else as vi harris. everything about this audiobook is exactly what i wanted it to be. and the only thing that can make it better is when dominate releases on audio and i can listen to it too. (given the cliffhanger, i'm so glad i already read it . i'm off to re-read because i need more gareth.) **I won the audiobook versi...

the prequel to wounded hearts , wounded hero ,  sets the stage for this romance. addison and scott meet in a bar and share an incredible night together. scott carries the weight of his military service and the things he's seen, and when addison needs him to dominate her, because that's her kink, he's afraid of hurting her. months later addison and scott meet in york. half the world away from nashville, where they first met. neither of them have forgotten their night together, and even though it seems as if neither of them can give the other what they need, something keeps bringing them together. one of my favorite things about this book is the time the chaacters spend in york, which happens to be one of my favorite cities in england. when the characters meet up again in italy. it feels like perhaps they will make a go of this. but scott is leery of commitment or sharing anything about his past, and the lack of trust and communication cuts away at addison. she surviv...