Rocky Road (Sons of Scandal #2) by Becky Wade

E-Reader Addict Rating: 🌟🌟

I’ve dragged my feet on writing this review. Mostly because my thoughts are kinda all over the place on this one. The overwhelming one being disappointment…I really enjoyed the first book in this series, Memory Lane, and was looking forward to reading Rocky Road.

Here’s the main thing: Ms. Wade’s writing is beautiful and flowy, but has a formal quality (in both the narrative and dialog) that feels incongruent for a contemporary story. Which I think makes the pacing feel slow…leisurely…meandering. As a result, it took me almost a month to get through this book – my attention kept getting diverted to other books and I only finally finished during two three-hour plane rides when there were no other distractions to be had.

Outside the slow pace, there were a couple things I appreciated about this book. First, I like a hero who stands firm in his convictions. FBI Agent Jude knows his attraction to Gemma can’t be acted on while they are working his case together…so he doesn’t. So many romance stories tell us it’s only romantic if you let your feelings drive your actions, but I’m more drawn to characters who can put their actions on hold until the time is right. I also enjoyed the mini history lesson about World War II Code Girls.

But even that was a double edged sword because that side plot really didn’t do anything to move the main storyline along. Nor did the one with Jude’s mom trying to reconcile with her sister. Which is my other big thing with this book: I didn’t feel either the relationship between Jude and Gemma was well developed, and the big thing that brought them together – her cousin’s corporate espionage – wasn’t all cloak and dagger as a good sting operation should be. I liked the idea of the story, but feel the execution was lacking.

And one final thing seemed out of place: the whole quasi-religious aspect of the story. This series seems to be a bit of a departure from the author’s usually more overt Christian-themed books. The religion tossed in here seemed to be done so to appease her disappointed fan base – many of the reviews for Memory Lane blasted the author for the story containing alcohol, infidelity (it didn’t actually take place during the book mind you, but was part of the history of the hero’s parents), and for NOT having much of a faith aspect to it. Which is fair. If you’re expecting a certain kind of book from an author and that’s not what you get, disappointment is the likely result. But I think if you’re going to write religion into your story, don’t just give it lip service.

So yeah, lots of conflicting thoughts about this book. I wanted to like it, but I was never compelled to read more than a chapter at a time until there was nothing else for me to do but read it… At this point, I’m not sure if I’ll read a third Sons of Scandal book if there is one.

* thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review

All the Little Raindrops by Mia Sheridan

E-Reader Addict Rating: 🌟🌟🌟

I’m not sure how I feel about Mia Sheridan’s turn towards dark suspense stories. I fell in love with her storytelling with Archer’s Voice, but this one is SO FAR away from that.

All the Little Raindrops starts with two high school students discovering they’ve been kidnapped and locked in separate cages. The first 35% of the book is their horrifying time as prisoners and their harrowing escape. (I want to make readers aware that while what happens to the hero and heroine isn’t described in graphic detail, you’re given enough to know what they experienced during their time in captivity). Then we get a couple quick chapters of post-escape and one year later. The final 60% takes place seven years later, when the hero – who has become a personal investigator – learns that what happened to him and the heroine may still be happening and he reaches out to the heroine for help with his investigation into who was responsible for their abduction and why. From there, such a convoluted and complicated plot unraveled that it made we wonder what the author is eating/drinking/smoking to have her come up with such a disturbing story.

But I have to admit, even though dark stories aren’t my usual jam, I am willing to read them if Mia Sheridan is the author. Especially if there’s a romance storyline and one of my favorite tropes (not sharing what that is so I don’t spoil anything). However, I feel like this book could have used a little more romance to balance out all the rest of the book’s icky parts (as she did in Where the Blame Lies).

I’m not sure if I’m going to keep reading Ms. Sheridan’s thrillers/suspense novels. I have to get in the right frame of mind and real life is enough of a dumpster fire. I seldom open my Kindle with the desire to read something sinister and unsettling – even if I have confidence the author will deliver writing that is fantastic and engaging. Reading is how I unwind after a long day, how I relax, how I empty my mind so I can fall asleep quickly at night. Books like this don’t help with that!

*thank you to NetGalley and Montlake for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review

All Rhodes Lead Here by Mariana Zapata

E-Reader Addict Rating: 🌟🌟

I am not a person who stays away from – or is afraid of – long books. But good golly Miss Molly this one was WAY TOO LONG.

I also must not be a very patient reader because the start of this book made me cranky. There’s nothing that turns me off a book faster than when the author alludes to some big, terrible event in a character’s past and draaaagggggsssss out the reveal forever. Which is exactly what we get here, times two. We know something went horribly wrong early in the heroine’s life, but we don’t know what. We know something more recently went wrong with her life. We know something went wrong with her long-time relationship. We don’t know what her career was. We just don’t know much. Just that she’s running from her old life and thinks going to a place she once lived while she was growing up is a good place to start figuring out the rest of her life. And because the whole book is told from Aurora’s point of view, there’s even more unanswered questions about everyone in her new life until she screws up the courage to ask.

And it just goes on and on and on. With so many words describing so many inane, repetitive details. The humor felt contrived, and the requisite third-act conflict an unnecessary, overreacted result of noncommunication. My overwhelming feeling reading this book was frustration instead of pleasure.

The only good part about the book was Amos, the hero’s teenage son. And finally finishing it (which took me two weeks).

I think this author’s slow-burn, glacially slow paced, extra long books may be better suited to my audiobook tastes. But then again, I didn’t much enjoy being in this heroine’s head. So maybe it wouldn’t have helped here. All I know is I’m not inclined to read the author again if it’s going to take me two weeks to finish her book…

* thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Before I’m Gone by Heidi McLaughlin

E-Reader Addict Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I’ve read over a dozen Heidi McLaughlin books. And I think this one may just be her best one yet – it’s definitely my favorite of hers. To start with, you need to know this isn’t a romance where you get a happy ever after. But it IS a beautiful, heartwarming, heartbreaking LOVE story.

Abandoned at an orphanage when she was five, Palmer Sinclair has lived her whole life solitary, without family or close friends. When debilitating headaches turn out to be more than just migraines, she writes a bucket list of things she wants to see before her terminal illness ends her life.

Paramedic Kent Wagner has been a casual acquaintance of Palmer’s for years – he drops off his car loan payment every month in person at the bank where she’s a loan officer. When his ambulance gets called to attend to Palmer’s medical emergencies not once but twice, Kent learns of her diagnosis. And when his own world falls apart, he decides to help Palmer complete her list. After all, who better than a paramedic to accompany a person with a terminal illness as she travels around the country?

As someone who wants to see all the things in all the places, I’m inclined to enjoy stories about people going from place to place to experience the world. And I thoroughly enjoyed Kent and Palmer’s journey – even as they had to make adjustments as Palmer’s health declined. But what made me love this story so much is how Palmer and Kent perfectly met the needs the other had. It was as if two random puzzle pieces had been wandering around, at loose ends, until the trip helped them discover who they fit with.

But as I said, this story does not have a happy ending for our hero and heroine. Have the Kleenex ready because there’s nothing sadder than two people who belong together and made each other immeasurably happy, being torn apart by death. Especially after such a short time together.

Despite not getting the ending I wanted for Palmer and Kent, I absolutely adored the ending for Kent. It was the perfect amount of sweetness and hope I desperately needed to lift my aching heart after the heartbreaking end to Kent and Palmer’s travels.

There haven’t been too many books recently that have touched me so deeply. This one is gonna stay with me for a long while.

* thank you to NetGalley and Montlake for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review

The Whole Time (The D’Angelos #4) by Catherine Bybee

E-Reader Addict Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Another day, another Catherine Bybee book that was an absolute delight to read.

The Whole Time (The D’Angelos #4) takes us back to Little Italy in San Diego and the D’Angelo family restaurant. With all the D’Angelo siblings happily married, this book follows family friend and restaurant manager Selena Barone as she moves out of the home of her uber-traditional parents and into the top apartment above the restaurant. When she meets Ryan at the wedding of Gio (the D’Angelo’s middle child) and Emma (their story is in book three of this series, Beginning of Forever), sparks fly both ways but Selena is reluctant to have a serious relationship.

I confess, this one didn’t pull me in as hard or quickly as the other three books in this series – but that’s more a me problem. I had a hard time connecting with Selena and her “I don’t give a @&$#” attitude (especially when she absolutely did give a @&$#), and I didn’t ever feel like I was truly able to understand why she was the way she was. But I liked her a lot. And Ryan? I liked him even more! There’s nothing I love more than a hero who falls first and is willing to be patient and play the long game to win the heart of the woman he loves.

I suspect some readers may say nothing happens in this book. To a point, that is true – we spend a lot of time with Selena and Ryan’s day-to-day activities and seeing their relationship develop in a very sweet, organic way. We watch as Selena builds a potentially scandalous side-hustle to improve her finances. But there isn’t a whole lot of angst or soap-opera levels of drama. Just relatable people dealing with realistic life challenges. And you know what? THOSE are my favorite kinds of stories. They are also the kind of stories this author specializes in and I love them.

Catherine Bybee is one of my favorite authors and this book – this whole series, really – is one of the many reasons why. I know whenever I open one of her books I’m going to get a heartwarming story about lovable characters that will leave me with a smile on my face. And there’s not much better than that!

* thank you to NetGalley and Montlake for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review

In the Likely Event by Rebecca Yarros

E-Reader Addict Rating: 🌟🌟

I have loved many Rebecca Yarros books in the past, but In the Likely Event made me want to beat myself in the head with my Kindle.

Isabeau and Nathaniel met at 18 and 19 on a plane that ended up crashing into a river 90 seconds after takeoff. They then spend the next 10 years coming and going in and out of each other’s lives, only reuniting a handful of times, never spending more than a week together (but usually only a day or two), and it was the most frustrating story I’ve read in FOREVER.

Here’s the thing…this is supposed to be a love story. A romance. Technically it is – Izzy and Nate do eventually get their happily ever after (thank goodness because the ending was the only thing I really liked about this story). But this was the messiest, ugliest “romance/love” story I’ve read in a long time. Maybe even ever. Because there is absolutely nothing romantic or heroic about a man telling the woman he loves to go live her life and be with other people – or for him to be with other people, if he is in love with her. I get that young people do dumb things, have questionable logic, and make stupid decisions. I get that Nate’s job in the military made it impossible for them to have a typical relationship. But to be okay with leaving things so open ended and undefined is crap. The whole “right person, wrong time” thing was a heaping load of malarkey that I didn’t buy for half a second.

Do I think the book is well written? Yes.
Did I think the past and present storytelling worked well? Yes.
Did I get aggravated by just about everything else in this book? Yes again.

I was so excited to get an ARC of this book, but I held off on reading it because I was about to take a trip and get on a plane and who needs to read about a plane crash as you’re about to get on a plane!?!? Now I wish I would have skipped this one altogether. There’s nothing that deflates me more as an avid reader than when a beloved author writes a story I find utterly unpalatable. Thankfully it doesn’t happen often. And I have hope that Ms. Yarros’s next contemporary romance won’t rub me the wrong way so badly. But wowzers, this one sure did.

* thank you to NetGalley and Montlake for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Better Than Most by Jennifer Millikin

E-Reader Addict Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟½

There’s not much I love more than a second chance romance. Yet, I’m also not a fan of the “older brother’s best friend” trope. So I had no idea which way Better Than Most would go. I shouldn’t have been concerned because Jennifer Millikin has shown me time and again that she steers clear of the stereotypical storyline routes that make me cranky and just gives us a fantastic story.

Ten years ago, Georgia had a secret relationship with her older brother’s best friend, Rhodes. But shortly after her father’s tragic meth-induced death, Rhodes broke things off with a flimsy excuse and left town. Not only was Georgia heartbroken, she couldn’t even tell anyone why.

And now Rhodes is back. As much as Georgia would like to keep her distance and protect her heart (that now has even more bruises on it), she’s finding it difficult when they keep running into each other and also…he volunteers to be her partner for a West Coast Swing competition.

I can’t remember the last hero who had me swooning so much. Rhodes, oh sweet Rhodes. I loved how contrite he was about his mistakes in the past and didn’t come rolling back into town assuming he’d get the girl back. It’s also so refreshing to read about a guy who has been pining for the girl, who wants the relationship, the marriage, the family. There wasn’t a cocky, arrogant bone anywhere in Rhodes’s body and I freaking loved him.

I also loved the relationship development in this book, both in the past and the present. I loved how Georgia and Rhodes let their true thoughts and emotions show, both the good and the bad – I love a heroine who shows the full force of her well-justified anger, and a hero who takes it. There was no being coy or playing games, not even when they were young. Even when it came time to reveal secrets and face the past, I loved how they dealt with it head on and didn’t let things get more complicated by acting like teenagers.

The only thing I think this book is missing is more about Rhodes’s life the past ten years. Or maybe I just wanted more of Rhodes…this book is dual POV, with only a third of the chapters written from Rhodes’s perspective. But that’s about the only thing I can complain about with this story.

This was a second chance romance done right, and dare I say probably the only brother’s best friend story I can ever remember enjoying. Did their reason for keeping the relationship a secret make sense? Yes. And spoiler alert: that whole part of the storyline didn’t go down the stereotypical way. THANK GOODNESS.

I can’t wait for whatever is next from Jennifer Millikin. She has a poetic way of writing that draws me in and keeps me engaged from page one. And Better Than Most just may be my favorite story of hers so far!

PS Do yourself a favor – do a YouTube search of West Coast Swing if you’re not familiar with the dance! It will give you a visual of when Georgia and Rhodes are dancing and adds a whole new dimension to an already great book.

* thank you to Valentine PR for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review

The Second Half by Rachel Blaufeld

E-Reader Addict Rating: 🌟🌟

I sometimes have the attention span of a toddler when it comes to reading. When I decided it was time I read The Second Half, I opened it up and discovered I had already started it and was three chapters in…with no recollection of having done so or what was going on at the start of chapter four.

This can’t be a good thing, I told myself. But I started back from the beginning. And promptly realized why it was so forgettable. Regardless, I continued on because there truly is a shortage of romance books written about the 40+ set.

Ultimately, there wasn’t anything I found objectionable about this story. The hero and heroine were both mature people who had a genuine interest in the other but lived on opposite coasts of the US. Add in the extra challenges of navigating a relationship when one person is famous and has paparazzi following all the time, and this could have been a dramatic love story.

Instead, there wasn’t much to the story other than the hero and heroine spending brief periods of time together in which they talk about how much they miss each other. Yet I felt not an ounce of their yearning.

There were also large jumps of time, and a good amount of telling vs showing. For example, the hero’s identity getting revealed – a huge source of contention that caused the heroine to push the hero away because of her concern over what the paparazzi will do to him – happened completely off page and was resolved and all over in a single paragraph. I’m not a fan of ridiculous, over-the-top drama, but some realistic turmoil is good. Please show it to me!

I wanted to like this one. Sadly, it just fell flat. Even with a plot twist (I saw coming from a mile away) that I LOVE in my romance stories, I finished this one feeling meh.

*thank you to NetGalley and Rachel Blaufeld Publishing for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Pretend You’re Mine (Benevolence #1) by Lucy Score

E-Reader Addict Rating: 🌟🌟

I didn’t do my research on this one, and kinda lived to regret it.

When I saw a Lucy Score book on NetGalley I jumped at it because so many reviewers I have similar tastes with love her. The one book I did try, I didn’t like, and several reviewers told me I should try a different book because the one I read wasn’t her best. So I thought a ha! I’ll try this new book. But this is not a new book…it’s a rerelease.

Pretend You’re Mine started out cute, yet quickly went into TOO MANY PECS, NOT ENOUGH PLOT. And I can appreciate an author building the book’s world (I do love me a small town with all the quirky, fun characters!), but at some point I don’t want any more inane details. I want depth. Yet the details, so many details, just kept coming.

But that wasn’t the only issue I had with this story. I found the heroine’s behavior toward the hero marginally problematic. If roles were reversed and the heroine was the one saying no and the hero kept pressuring her, I don’t think we’d be amused. We’d be raving about consent and respecting boundaries.

And the hero? He was a big pile of UGH. The widower who feels “responsible” for his wife’s death when he wasn’t? This hero had a martyr complex the size of the Grand Canyon. Dear Sir, get thee to a therapist, pronto. I’m also not a fan of using a tragic secret from the past to artificially build drama. Just tell us what happened already, even if you don’t want the heroine to know.

Finally, I think this book was about 200 pages too long – I ended up skimming a lot of the narration and just read the dialogue, which thankfully was good. Even still, it took me 10 days to read the book. I’m thinking this is another case of a super popular author I just don’t click with. Lucy Score seems to write books that focus a lot on the chemistry part of a relationship, whereas I prefer stories where there is more of an emotional connection first. Chemistry is good. Chemistry is important. But it doesn’t get my gears turning when I read a book.

I have the next book in this series (also a NetGalley ARC of a rerelease), and I’m determined to get through that one as well. So we’ll see if I change my mind about this author…

* thank you to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review

The Trail of Lost Hearts by Tracey Garvis Graves

E-Reader Addict Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

My ARC reader red flag is that I’ll desperately want an ARC from a favorite author, be unbelievably excited to get the ARC, and not read it until well after the publication date.

Then the book is fantastic and I hate myself for waiting so long…

I’ve done this to myself for the last four Tracey Garvis Graves books.

When TGG released the cover of The Trail of Lost Hearts six weeks ago, I had great hopes the book would show up on NetGalley soon so I started logging in first thing every morning to see if it was there. Then two days ago I got an email from a marketing coordinator at St. Martin’s Publishing Group WITH A LINK TO THE ARC. This was me:

So I said to myself, “E-Reader Addict, DO NOT do what you usually do when you’re uber-excited to have a TGG ARC in your hands!” And I didn’t! I downloaded the book and started reading while drinking my morning cup of tea, continued until lunch and ate while reading, and finished just as dinner was being put on the table. I couldn’t put it down.

And let me tell you, it’s been a good long while since I read a book in a single day.

There’s nothing I love more than a love story where the relationship develops organically, overcomes realistic challenges, and ends with a happily ever after. Wren and Marshall’s is beautiful.

After a heartbreaking loss and a shocking discovery, Wren Waters leaves her home in Ohio to take a week-long solo geo-caching trip in Oregon. Within minutes on the trail she comes across friendly Marshall, yet throws out major “leave me alone” vibes. But after Marshall comes to Wren’s aid during a terrifying situation, she accepts his offer of teaming up for the remainder of her adventure.

At the end of their week together, neither is wanting the burgeoning relationship to end. Except Marshall has his own demons to fight.

“…maybe the universe wasn’t trying to send me a psychologist. Maybe the universe sent a psychologist who appreciates the company of another person while he’s working through his own grief and pain. Two birds, one stone. I’m paying attention.”

Because Wren is no longer willing to settle for less than she deserves, she heads home on her own, holding onto her belief that the universe will send you what you truly need. However once she’s home, she faces doubt and challenges she didn’t know she could endure.

One of the things I love most about TGG books is that her characters seem like real people – like ones I’d actually know in real life, facing real-life situations. And there are so many things I love about this story. At the top of the list: mature characters who have actual issues to work through. I loved Wren’s growth from overwhelming doubt to removing herself from a potential relationship that clearly wasn’t starting out on the right path. And I love stories where the couple knows they belong together, but also know they need to do some work to heal themselves first. I love watching the hero and heroine grow, but mostly I love their love story.

I could keep gushing on and on about The Trail of Lost Hearts, but I’ll stop here. Let me twll you with this: if you like love stories about mature people facing realistic challenges, read this book!!!

On The Island will always be my favorite TGG book, and I’ve loved everything else she’s written, but The Trail of Lost Hearts just might be my second favorite (maybe tied with Heart-Shaped Hacked – it’s a close call!). I’m so glad I didn’t wait this time, but also a little mad at myself for plowing through this one in practically one sitting. And now I’m faced with the dreaded situation of having to wait extra-long for TGG’s next book (it’s now August 2023 and this publishes in March 2024). I sure wish she’d publish books more often, but it’s hard to complain when everything she writes is so incredibly good.

* thank you to NetGalley, and a HUGE thank you to St. Martin’s Press, for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review