definitely, possibly, maybe

truly harbury is in a bit of a bind. while she would very much prefer to stay behind the scenes at her family's charity, her sister's difficult pregnancy brings her to the spotlight. when her former friend slash secret crush noah jensen agrees to help her figure out how to be social and be the face of the foundation they reconnect in more ways than expected. or expected i guess, since this is a romance novel. and international player  is at its core a lovely friends-to-lovers story. both truly and noah have baggage that they need to work through, but they are also super supportive and sweet with one another, and their chemistry is off the charts. it was so enjoyable to see this story play out the way it did and i have to admit that noah is just a total dreamboat. the whole book is worth reading for his pov alone. **international player will publish on april 30, 2019. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of candi kane pr in exchange for my honest review. keep r...

sarah mayberry is always a must-buy for me, and the rebel and the cowboy continues the carmody siblings series with soulful musician casey taking center stage. his story begins when a stranger finds herself in town and down on her luck. eva king is an up and coming artist who needs the commission to turn the town's grain elevator into a piece of art. problem is she's up against her ex-boyfriend who basically took sole credit for every piece of art they collaborated on for years. the carmody's and their convenient airstream trailer come to the rescue when eva needs a place to stay. and from the moment their eyes cross paths casey and eva are drawn to each other. there are so many reasons for them not to work, but when they are in each other's presence they burn with need for one another. and then it's more than that too. who they become for each other matters too. he's the boy who isn't supposed to hit the road, and she's the girl who never stays. ...

lark dayton is that girl who lies to get boys to dump her. mostly because she doesn't want to have that big breakup fight. possibly because she's been hearing her parents have that big breakup fight for years but it never gets better. but when she meets ardy tate in hearts made for breaking . he's not her usual kind of guy. he's a little strange. a little bit too honest. maybe a bit too good to be true. but lark likes him. she can't read him though, and that's enough reason for her to not take a risk. but when her best friends, katie and cooper, dare her to be with someone for 3 months and be real and not fake her way into a breakup but have a real one, her mind drifts to ardy. soon, she's finding ways to interact with him. excuses to talk or study together. he's still a bit hard to read, and he's definitely weird, but lark likes all this. he likes her back. but there's his past and her curiosity and the game that isn't really a game wait...

april hunt kicks off a new suspense series with deadly obsession . the steele ops team is comprised of four brothers and this story begins with knox's return after a two-year absence. it's not a quiet, calm arrival. everyone is kind of mad at him, even though he has his reasons for staying away. i'm not saying they're good reasons, but also i just don't understand the kind of family dynamics at play here because mine are not like these and the level of butthurt is intense for what is happening, but nevermind, because there is an actual serial killer on the loose. and even worse this killer appears to be targeting zoey wright, and on top of that instead of her safe job in the crime lab she's out in the streets doing crime scene investigative work. just because she's decided to put herself in harm's way doesn't mean that knox will let anything happen to her. and his protectiveness can be explained by the fact that she's his best friend's ...

highland crown  kicks off a new trilogy from may mcgoldrick, and it is the perfect blend of intrigue, scandal, and forbidden love in the scottish highlands. isabella is bound by her profession to save the injured ship captain she's encountered as she's trying to escape her own past. little does she know that he is in as much, or possibly more, trouble than she is. as they are caught up in the danger that nips at their heels, the unexpected feelings that bloom between them only ups the ante more. a blend of historical fact and creative storytelling, highland crown hits all the right notes.  this is a true trilogy, so we when reach the end of this novel, there is still more story for these two to endure. and it's clear that the road ahead won't be easy. but perhaps the reward is worth it? **highland crown will publish on april 30, 2019. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/st. martin's press in exchange for my honest review.

finally we get to see kennedy and kate's story. and after two books of tension, i'm happy to report that huge deal is well worth the wait. everything about these two feels earned. yes, kate is in love with kennedy, but she's also aware of his shortcomings and won't let either of them forget them. she is ready to move on with her life. and kennedy gets the jolt of a lifetime when he realizes that if he doesn't make a move, if things don't change he could lose the one person he might not be able to live without. while technically a standalone, huge deal  is best enjoyed after reading the first two books in the series. and while kennedy's story should wrap up the series, there is potential for more with both jack and jarod waiting in the sidelines. fingers crossed is all i can say, i love this world. **huge deal published on april 23, 2019. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/montlake romance in exchange for my honest review. 

beatrice "bee" baker is having *a day* when she encounters a man in a velvet cape she just wants to nuzzle. he turns out to be one of the marvelous marlow boys, a down-on-their-luck magical act working the crowd in new orleans. when a mix-up results in bee keying huxley's car, he blackmails her into becoming his new stage assistant. from the moment they meet, the chemistry is off the charts. but they've both got baggage and money-related problems about to crash on their heads. new orleans rush  is a satisfying contemporary romance, with a strong cast of secondary characters and two leads who are flawed but loveable. **new orleans rush will publish on april 23, 2019. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/everafter romance in exchange with an honest review. 

the highland pride series continues with highland salvation , and this one includes one of my favorite tropes in highland romances. the forced proximity/marriage of convenience trope. finlay cameron is actually kind of glad when he's commanded to marry blair mcnab. he's long admired her, but due to the circumstances is uncertain on whether or not he can trust her. especially since someone seems to be targeting him. he can't believe that blair would ever willingly love him, because he's an english lord's bastard and not great at book learning (he's likely dyslexic). this makes him the strong, silent type with that gooey soft center i love. but the fact that these two characters have such challenges in communication also frustrates me to no end. blair holds back because she's made some bad choices, and she's been blackmailed into this marriage and doesn't know that she can trust finlay. she doesn't always know how to take his gruff dispositio...

book 3 in the fire's edge series, the rookie , has rookie firefighter/orphaned dragon shifter aiden finding his soulmate where he least expects it. he'd thought the dreams he had of sera were a product of his overactive imagination and desire for her. little did he know that she had shared the visions too. in the daylight hours, he does his best to stay away from her, not realizing how hurtful and confusing she finds it because she is as drawn to him as he is to her. and when her fire brand is revealed, it's clear why. he is meant to be hers, even though her brand is three families entwined, she knows from his reaction, from the depths of her very soul that she is meant to be his. but the mating process for dragon shifters has become dangerous and highly politicized. and the fire's edge team has already broken more than a few rules. soon it will be all out war, and the rookie  takes up that intensity. i can't wait to see where the next book in the series tak...

i've read all the london celebrities books, and honestly i thought the series had ended. but the world is rich and layered enough that it is entirely possible for this series to keep going on indefinitely. something that totally works for me. in this book we are treated to a heroine who is both delightfully sunny and honest. her brand of honesty is not the kind that cuts, but it is still incisive and astute. and that core of honesty is what brings freddy and griff together. he is that acerbic, no-holds-barred kind of honest. the kind of person you hate for being right because of the way he elects to deliver the unvarnished truth about your truest self. how he sees past all artifice and gets to the heart of the matter. he is not kind. but he isn't cruel either. at their core, freddy and griff are both intensely moral people who do things for love of their family. you look past all the window dressings of who they appear to be and you see that they are, of course, meant for...

when three half-sisters find themselves at a crossroads in their lives, their aunt maneuvers them into spending the summer together housesitting. and the single men next door might find their lives shaken up by their temporary neighbors. i mean, that's where i imagine this is going as a series. and i am into it. promise me  focuses on kendall and vaughn. kendall is the youngest sister, and is supposed to be heading to law school in the fall. except for many reasons that's not the path she wants her life to take. she made a terrible mistake in high school and has been trying to make reparations for it ever since. and so she's not sure her heart is available to anyone. but vaughn finds a way to sneak in. he's an up-and-coming model/actor and has a chance at real stardom. with his biggest role on the line, he's got some stuff to work through. like his dad's inability to let him make his own decisions. and cutting out people who don't do him any good in...

the last of the girls weekend away series, a match made in monaco  has cynic/closet romantic fredi finding her one true love with hot actor zayn. this is a pretty short read, at about half the length of the other books in the series. and the plot itself is kind of thin. basically, fredi shows up early in monaco for her friend's destination wedding and zayn, the groomsman she's paired with shows up early too. they've been texting/sexting for months before this so consummate the sexual tension and learn it's so much more. fredi is gun shy and zayn is a dreamboat. so really it's not hard to figure out how things work out. this was a perfectly enjoyable read, just don't look for depth as it's pretty insubstantial. which is perhaps all one needs to get their mind off their taxes, for example... **a match made in monaco will publish on april, 15, 2019. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/entangled publishing (amara) in exchange for my h...

book 5 in the cake series, rogue wave , tackles keith mckallister's story. and the long torturous love affair he has with samantha anderson. i would have liked this book so much better if we hadn't spent so much time in the past. this has been my main complaint about this series as a whole, i thought the theory of second best  was good, and the way it dealt with the mckallister's trauma didn't overpower the narrative. but in fiercely emma the book was so bogged down in the flashbacks and i was over it. in fact, i couldn't read book 4 in the series because i didn't want to read anything more about jake and casey. every time jake is in the room it's like he sucks all the oxygen out of the story. how a character i enjoyed so much in the first book became one i dread reading about i don't know? so when i realized that this book timeline begins before the bad stuff actually happened to the mckallisters, i was sort of over it? which suc ks, because...

l.p. dover's latest, love, again , is a second-chance romance that features a hotshot hollywood director and the man she left behind in dusty valley, oklahoma to reach her dreams. in the ten years since she left her first love, aubrey has never forgotten cole. so when a misdiagnosis has her questioning her life choices, she decides to start living with no regrets. she writes up a bucket list and leaves the glitz and glamour of hollywood behind. the pull of reconnecting with her lost love is too strong to deny, so she finds herself going back home. and honestly, there was very little conflict in this book. she goes home, reconnects with her guy who forgives her because he's still in love with her. and like no one holds the fact that she left everyone behind against her. it's true that communication goes both ways, so i suppose it's not a bad thing that she doesn't have to shoulder all the blame for leaving her entire life before hollywood in the dust bowl. but ...

so in a strange coincidence, the boyfriend bid  has a bit in common with an accidental date with a billionaire . except this is the young adult version. there's a charity bid and working for habitat fr humanity. but this prickly heroine, sarah campbell, has been cheated on by her ex-boyfriend and kind of down with love. meanwhile chance dupont just moved to a new high school and is basically a total dreamboat. like sarah is super duper mean to him most of the time, and he's totally smitten. and for being a jock and cute and hot, he's humble and completely unaware of his dreamboat status. and he knows that sarah is a total basketcase who is afraid of commitment and does such a good job of respecting her boundaries that she doesn't even realize he is completely in love with her. i know i'm making it seem as if sarah is completely unlikeable, but that really isn't it. she's lost and confused and gun-shy, he just is super dreamy. anyway, this is a very swe...

in an accidental date with a billionaire , samantha matthews has tried to leave all the trappings of wealth behind. hanging out with the high society types who rejected her when her parent's duplicitous behavior was revealed is not her idea of a good time. she's intent on not letting money change who she is, and since learning about all the hurt her family caused, she's been paying it back. one good deed at a time. when her best friend begs her to attend a charity gala and bid on her brother, sam agrees reluctantly. except to her horror, she's bid on the wrong guy. a rich jerk whose disinterest in the whole thing couldn't be more obvious. so she decides she's going to teach him a lesson. taylor jennings may play the role of mr. moneybags to perfection, and it's true that he's been more involved in playing that role than his real self of late, but the chance encounter with the woman who didn't want to buy his date throws him off. while he's ...

bad boy of country music clay coolidge needs annie mathers on his side in you'd be mine . partly because the label wants her on their payroll. she's the daughter of country music royalty. but that's a legacy she's not interested in harnessing. finding your parents dead of a drug overdose and suicide is something that will stay with you. in a bad way. and clay whose grief is eating away at him, just like the never-ending schedule of tours and music he doesn't feel and groupies who just want a piece of him without actually wanting him is heading down a similar road. annie shouldn't like clay. clay should definitely not like annie. but they spark something in each other. and maybe, if that spark catches flame there will be redemption for the both of them. or maybe they'll burn each other out. and reading this swoony romance is just an enjoyable journey. there's the right amount of angst and romance in this. **you'd be mine will publish on april ...

one thing you can always count on from grace burrowes is a solid historical romance. when a duchess says i do  finds a widowed matilda wakefield seeking refuge on duncan wentworth's land, he can't stop himself from helping a lady out. even if she looks like a proper mess. she's running from people who would make her life impossible, and as such as she isn't interested in involving duncan in her problems (she can actually solve them on her own thank you very much) he's so understanding and kind and swoony it's hard to ignore him. plus he plays chess and she's the only person able to read his horrendous handwriting. and maybe she's just more to him than a pretty face.  **when a duchess says i do will publish on april 2, 2019. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/grand central publishing (forever) in exchange for my honest review.