definitely, possibly, maybe

i always like to look at my goodreads  stats for the year. this year i read an incredible number of books, and i enjoyed so many of them. standouts include: warrior by karen lynch haven by karen lynch haven by mary lindsay black bird of the gallows  by meg kessel by your side by kasie west ruthless king by meghan march defiant queen by meghan march sinful empire  by meghan march offsetting penalties by ally matthews the girl with the make-believe husband by julia quinn the hot shot by kristin callihan lord of desire by elizabeth hoyt i could really keep going...anyway here's a snapshot view of my crazy reading stats.

earl interrupted is the second part of the daring marriages series. robert ashton, earl of darington is more comfortable on a ship's deck than in a society drawing room. having recovered his family's fortunes on the high seas, it's time for him to return to london and make an acceptable marriage. except for all his strength and determination managing an unruly crew, speaking with delicate young ladies terrifies him and twists his tongue into knots. miss emma st. james finds herself in difficult circumstances. about to reach her majority and in line to inherit her father's estate, her stepmother and stepbrother are trying to find a way to have her declared insane if she doesn't marry her stepbrother. so she runs away having promised to marry a stranger in america and immediately finds trouble. rescued by robert, who has been shot, emma refuses to leave him behind when they both must seek refuge from the men who have assaulted them. this puts them in a most imp...

one thing that always amazes me about fantasy writers is how they build these intricate worlds, with their own geographies and whole mythologies that make them something new and different. the eighth king pulls from chinese mythology, but the world is still new and intricate and complicated. you have to be in the right frame of mind to pick up this novel, the prose is rich, filled with wordplay. sometimes it repeats, but sometimes you need that because there is a lot of description to keep track of. keeping it all straight can be a problem, though i also suffer from mom brain and am not the most visual of readers so all that description can cause me to glaze over. but the story flows and you find yourself caught up in the battle over the orchid throne. this isn't my usual fare, but that doesn't mean i didn't enjoy it. tenshing and datang's story is epic and adventurous and fantastical in all the right places. and if you enjoy being in this world, you're in ...

and this is it. this is the end of say goodbye . i was so intent on preserving this somewhere for myself, though i did just recently find my original files. i had started posting this at the beginning of the year, and with 52 parts it scheduled out perfectly. i still have more fan fiction to post, but none as long as this one. thanks for sticking it out! if you need a refresher, you can click on the links to catch up with the story:  1 ,  2 ,  3 ,  4 ,  5 ,  6 ,  7 ,  8 ,  9 ,  10 ,  11 ,  12 ,  13 ,  14 ,  15 ,  16 ,  17 ,  18 ,  19 ,  20 ,  21 ,  22 ,  23 ,  24 ,  25 ,  26 ,  27 ,  28 ,  29 ,  30 ,   31 ,  32 ,  33 ,  34 ,  35 ,  36 ,  37 ,  38 ,  39 ,  40 ,  41 ,  42 ,  43 ,  44 ,  45 ,  46 ,  47 ,  48 ,  49 ,  50 , and 51 . th...

after hours   is exactly the kind of workplace drama i adore. two strangers meet and have a steamy encounter. neither thinks that they’ll cross paths again. except they can’t stop thinking about each other. and then they realize that not only will their paths cross again, and on a daily basis, but also that their entire relationship is technically inappropriate given their respective roles at their company.  and still there’s this chemistry that won’t stop. but being together means that one of them has to give something up. and for most of us, even fictional characters, what we do is enmeshed with who we are. giving up your job for someone is almost always a guarantee for future unhappiness.  marc and aysia need to navigate these bumpy corporate waters, all while dodging her creepy ex-boyfriend and trying to keep their crazy sexy chemistry under wraps. i enjoyed every second of it.  **after hours will publish on january 2, 2018. i received an advance reader copy co...

in keeping with my need to read royal romance, i also picked up royally screwed  by emma chase. this one tells the story of a different prince nicholas who falls in love with an american. he also has a prince harry stand in named henry. but this one is less of a retread of will and kate's relationship. which, honestly is a good thing. because sometimes trying to fictionalize real-life stories makes things stilted when they don't need to be. when nicholas meets olivia hammond in her pie shop he is drunk. he is so drunk he offers her money for sex. because he is so cynical that he believes everyone has a price. olivia is cynical too, but she has her self-respect. and it doesn't matter that this prince is the hottest man she's ever seen, he still gets a face full of pie for his impudence. he comes back the next day to grovel and beg her for a chance. because even sober he realizes he needs to spend more time with this woman. and it's not that she figures out ...

heather cocks and jessica morgan are better known as the writing team behind www.gofugyourself.com , the fug girls, but they've also co-written some young adult novels and the royal we . a book best described as prince william and kate middleton fan fiction, with a few key differences that make prince nicholas (nick) and his american girl, rebecca (bex) fictional. but now that harry is marrying meghan markle and the whole british prince marrying an american commoner who happens to be biracial thing is happening, i thought it was a grand time to revisit nick and bex. as with my first reading, the first third of the book is sweet and romantic. nick and bex are friends first. and they fall in love gradually. and then his royalty and what that means takes over. and his life isn't his own. that's the reality. he doesn't have freedom. and if bex wants to be with him, she needs to accept that he comes with the weight of the future...

show me , the companion book to tell me , follows hunter bryce's story. days away from going into a biosphere for eight months, hunter meets airin delaney in a bar and is drawn to her. she's mysterious and innocent in a way he doesn't expect. and she is reluctant to tell him everything because she's afraid of how he'll react, that he'll treat her differently if he knows that she's the daughter of a billionaire space scientist who has struggled with a heart condition her whole life. when they are in a freak car accident the night before hunter is scheduled to leave, everything changes. he refuses to leave her side, even if it costs him his position in the biosphere. and when he learns who she really is, when he must face her mother, everything really does change. her mother is reluctant to let her go. she's been protecting airin from the world for so long. so she blackmails hunter into spying on airin for her. in exchange, she promises to give him ...

book two in the seven brides for seven scotsman series, when you love a scotsman , takes place in the closing months of the civil war. matthew mcenroy is at the end of his time in the union army, and he's sick of war. he wants to go back to his family and their compound. but his commitment is for another two months. when a skirmish erupts on abigail jensen's family's property she's not sure how she feels about the help she receives from matthew and his fellow soldiers. but when her mother and father are killed and the cabin is burned down by the marauders she has no choice but to leave with them. they know of a home for women and children who have lost everything in the war. abigail settles in nicely, offering up her medical knowledge and helping care for the children in the home. matthew can't help himself from waalking out with her. he finds her attractive, even if he's not entirely sure how far he wants their relationship to go. for some reason abigai...

keeping with the cowboy theme, soraya lane's cowboy stole my heart  stays in the same world as her king series, but expands the world to a new family of ranchers who will likely find love by the time the series comes to a close. youngest daughter, mia ford is up first. when her father calls in sam mendes (not the film director even though that's who i thought of every time i saw his full name) to help with a stallion he feels is unmanageable she's livid. the horses are hers, and her father should have nothing to do with the decision-making on them. but there's a backstory there. she needs the horse to heal. it's personal for her. and even though she doesn't agree with her father's tactics, sam is good at when he does. he's become a celebrity horse trainer for a reason. and he does work miracles with mia's horse. mia and sam have a rougher start, given the attitude they throw around at each other. but the attitude hides the sparks. but it's no...