Tag: Romance

Reviews

It Happened One Summer Review

by amyleighreadsLeave a Comment on It Happened One Summer Review

*KINDA SPOILERY*

Piper Bellinger is fashionable, influential, and her reputation as a wild child means the paparazzi are constantly on her heels. When too much champagne and an out-of-control rooftop party lands Piper in the slammer, her stepfather decides enough is enough. So he cuts her off, and sends Piper and her sister to learn some responsibility running their late father’s dive bar… in Washington. Piper hasn’t even been in Westport for five minutes when she meets big, bearded sea captain Brendan, who thinks she won’t last a week outside of Beverly Hills. So what if Piper can’t do math, and the idea of sleeping in a shabby apartment with bunk beds gives her hives. How bad could it really be? She’s determined to show her stepfather—and the hot, grumpy local—that she’s more than a pretty face.

I think Piper was a good mix of delusional and realistic. She lives in a completely different world in LA than when she comes to Westport and she is very much aware of her privilege. Seeing her having to deal with the consequences of throwing that party and being arrested when she obviously thought she could get away with it was satisfying. I really enjoyed the gradual shift in her persona as she became more and more interested in Brendon and finally succumbed to her feelings.

Brendon is everything I want in a guy and more. I love the grumpy/sunshine trope in romance and this couple just encapsulated it perfectly. For a man that is so set in his ways for him to be willing to change all of his routines and patterns to make room for Piper was heartwarming.

This started off so nice and soft that by the time we got to the spicy scenes I was taken aback. This got very steamy and naughty pretty quickly once these two gave in to the temptation and it was fun! No fade to blacks here and the language had me feeling a little warm for sure.

⭐️5/5 stars I LOVED THIS!!

Book Lists, Top Ten Tuesdays

5 Romance Books I want To Read in 2023

by amyleighreads4 Comments on 5 Romance Books I want To Read in 2023

It’s Top Ten Tuesday time again friends! This week its a love/valentines freebie so I figure it was the perfect time to list some romance books I want to read this year.

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert

Happy Place by Emily Henry

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang

Honey & Spice by Bolu Babalola

Reviews

I Kissed Shara Wheeler Review

by amyleighreadsLeave a Comment on I Kissed Shara Wheeler Review

Chloe Green is so close to winning. After her moms moved her from SoCal to Alabama for high school, she’s spent the past four years dodging gossipy classmates and a puritanical administration at Willowgrove Christian Academy. The thing that’s kept her going: winning valedictorian. Her only rival: prom queen Shara Wheeler, the principal’s perfect progeny. But a month before graduation, Shara kisses Chloe and vanishes.

Chloe as a character is definitely interesting and she felt very authentic. Sometimes when I’m reading contemporary books the characters either read too young or old but I feel like Casey McQuiston got all of these characters pretty spot on. I liked the fact that Chloe rebels against the rigid rules and regulations at her school. At first I was confused as to why Chloe was so adamant in figuring out what happened to Shara and why she just had to follow her clues. I felt like there was no motivating factors for her to continue chasing after Shara when it was obvious she was just messing with them and sending them on this wild goose chase.

I didn’t like Shara’s character at all honestly. From what we find out about her throughout the course of the book she has always capitalized off her position as the principal’s daughter and uses and manipulates everyone around her for her own gain. Her quest she sets out for Chloe, Smith and Rory again really showcase how much of a bad person she is and I didn’t really like how she is supposed to be redeemed at the end. We don’t get to see her have conversations with Smith and Rory about how she used them and vice versa, we’re just supposed to accept that they are all good and dying each other’s hair. She just wasn’t really held accountable for anything and that annoyed me.

Overall I just didn’t understand what the purpose of the book was. It was centered around Shara however we don’t even meet her until almost three quarters of the way through. We see everything through Chloe’s perspective and she doesn’t have the nicest things to say about her and then I’m expected to believe that it was actually love she was feeling. Shara very nearly sabotaged Chloe’s whole academic career because she actually liked her too much? Just doesn’t make sense to me.

I understand that these are teenagers and maybe the way they feel isn’t supposed to make sense and this book was just supposed to be about accepting who you are and coming to terms with your feelings and growing from that, but I came out of it not feeling miffed. The other characters were entertaining and distinctive for the most part. The Rory and Smith subplot was adorable and I really enjoyed seeing them come together!

⭐️2/5 stars I can understand the appeal, wasn’t for me though…

Reviews

Well Matched Review

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Single mother April Parker has lived in Willow Creek for twelve years with a wall around her heart. On the verge of being an empty nester, she’s decided to move on from her quaint little town, and asks her friend Mitch for his help with some home improvement projects to get her house ready to sell. Mitch Malone is known for being the life of every party, but mostly for the attire he wears to the local Renaissance Faire — a kilt (and not much else) that shows off his muscled form to perfection. While he agrees to help April, he needs a favour too: she’ll pretend to be his girlfriend at an upcoming family dinner, so that he can avoid the lectures about settling down and having a more “serious” career than high school coach and gym teacher

April as a character isn’t very likeable to be honest, she is standoffish and pushes people away unnecessarily. For someone who had no intentions of staying in this town after her daughter goes to college she is very much worried about what they would be saying about her. I don’t understand why there is anything wrong with being open and public about her relationship with Mitch and it was quite rude of her to just negate their obvious feeling for each other and try to keep him a secret.

I like that Mitch called her out after she downplayed their relationship and he established boundaries with her. I kind of wish this would of been a dual perspective so we could of got to know Mitch more when he was at home and how he navigated his family before he brought April to meet them. I liked that we got that background about him and his family and how they have put his profession down over the years and don’t take him seriously, it gave the book and Mitch as a character much needed depth.

Usually I like fake relationships as a trope but I feel like in this case April didn’t get into it enough for me to fully believe in it. Mitch 100% did, I really enjoyed him as a character and it honestly made sense why he would be into April but she didn’t reciprocate it enough, it’s more like she felt obligated at the time otherwise their ruse would of been exposed. She obviously didn’t want to get judged for dating a ‘himbo’ at her age and it showed throughout the book through her actions.

It was overall not bad, I could overlook April’s flaws and get on board with the storyline. It was well paced and kept me invested throughout though it was kind of predictable. Jen DeLuca kind of has a formula with these books and you can easily see where things were headed and the outcome at the end. Nothing wrong with that though, I didn’t go into this book expecting anything more so I was still entertained!

⭐️3/5 stars Honestly forgettable but enjoyed at the time!

Reviews

Act Your Age, Eve Brown Review

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Eve Brown is a certified hot mess. No matter how hard she strives to do right, her life always goes horribly wrong—so she’s given up trying. But when her personal brand of chaos ruins an expensive wedding (someone had to liberate those poor doves), her parents draw the line. It’s time for Eve to grow up and prove herself—even though she’s not entirely sure how…

Eve’s character didn’t really gel with me at the start of the book. I thought she was spoilt and childish, pretty much exactly what her parents thought of her. But as the plot progressed and we learnt more about Eve and her struggles figuring out who she is as a person and why she throws away opportunities at the earliest convenience before the fails. She displays a lot of growth over the course of the storyline and even though her feelings for Jacob come on pretty quickly it made sense and she sat down and thought out why and if she was really feeling this way before communicating that to Jacob.

Jacob was precious. I love his sternness and abruptness and his overwhelming standoffish attitude yet that starkly contrasts with how he runs the B&B giving his tenants any and every opportunity to engage with him to make their stay better. I loved the banter between them, especially their first meeting! To see him slowly thaw around the edges when he was around Eve and accept all of her little quirks was wonderful to read and the way he tries to fight his feeling for her down was very cute.

I love a good hate to love trope and this book hit the nail on the head for me. I have to say the conflict between them that drove them apart was a little lacking in the dramatics for me. I think Eve definitely should of been a lot more sterner with her family and sent them away before going and talking to Jacob. It all felt a little rushed in the end and I wish it would of been drawn out a little more.

I have to say this is probably my favourite out of the three books in this series. In comparison to the other books this one felt a lot more light hearted and carefree. The stakes weren’t at a all time high or anything and it was just a fun, light fluffy read that I needed at this point in time. Talia Hibbert pretty much stuck to the same format throughout the three books but it works so why change what isn’t broken?!

⭐️5/5 stars Loved this, just read it!!