Book Review | Nightfall by Penelope Douglas

Pages: 621

Goodreads Rating: 4.24 / 5 stars

My Rating: ★★

Genre: New Adult Dark Romance

Publication Date: July 24th 2020

Publisher: Penelope Douglas LLC

Synopsis:

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From New York Times bestselling author Penelope Douglas comes the thrilling, final installment in the Devil’s Night series…

What happens when it’s five against one and nowhere to run?

EMORY

They call it Blackchurch. A secluded mansion in a remote, undisclosed location where the wealthy and powerful send their misbehaving sons to cool off away from prying eyes.

Will Grayson has always been an animal, though. Reckless, wild, and someone who was never bound by a single rule other than to do exactly what he wanted. There was no way his grandfather was going risk him humiliating the family again.

Not that the last time was entirely his fault. He might’ve enjoyed backing me into corners in high school when no one was looking, so they wouldn’t catch on that Mr. Popular actually wanted a piece of that quiet, little nerd he loved to torture so much, but…

He could also be warm. And fierce in keeping me safe.

The truth is… He has a right to hate me.

It’s all my fault. Everything.

Devils Night. The videos. The arrests.

I’m to blame for all of it.

And I regret nothing.

WILL

I never minded being locked up. I learned a long time ago that being treated like an animal gives you permission to act like one. No one has ever looked at me any other way.

Their only mistake is believing anything I do is an accident. I can sit in this house with no Internet, television, liquor, or girls, but I’ll come out of here with something far more frightening to my enemies.

A plan.

And a new pack of wolves.

I just didn’t expect one of my enemies to come to me.

I don’t know who smuggled her in or if they meant to leave her here, but I can smell her hiding in the house. She’s here.

And as the security detail leaves the supplies, the gates close, and the door to my gilded cage opens, giving me free reign of the house and grounds for another unsupervised month, I remember with a smile…

Blackchurch houses five prisoners. I’m only one of her problems.

*Nightfall is a full-length, romantic suspense suitable for readers 18+. It’s necessary to read the prior installments in the series before starting this story.

Favorite Novels of 2021

We’re days away before this year ends! 2021 is a roller coaster ride for me and I’m thankful for all the blessings I received this year. I had my ups and downs but here I am still surviving. To wrap up this year, I am sharing you all my favorite books I’ve read this year and happy to say I met my reading goals of 100 books. I even exceeded it and I discovered many romance books and I bet you’ve read some of these books.

Let’s begin shall we:

Most Anticipated Romance Books of 2022

We’re less than a month away before 2021 ends. It’s a year of rollercoaster of events and I am excited for the upcoming year filled with romance books I much look forward to. For this list, it’ll cover up the books announced and I am sure there’ll be more once authors reveal their books later on.

If you have any 2022 Romance books please add it on this list on Goodreads.

Favorite Authors I Discovered in 2021

Every year, we are in search for books that will satisfy our cravings. Some of these books are recommended to me by peers and I grateful I discovered these authors this year. Surely I will be stalking their upcoming books or even read their earlier works. 

I have several authors here that might be on your radar and let me tell you why I love them:

ARC Review | Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover

Pages: 335

Goodreads Rating: 4.72 / 5 stars

My Rating: 5 / 5 stars

Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance

Publication Date: January 18th 2022

Publisher: Montlake Romance / Amazon Publishing

Synopsis:

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A troubled young mother yearns for a shot at redemption in this heartbreaking yet hopeful story from #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover.

After serving five years in prison for a tragic mistake, Kenna Rowan returns to the town where it all went wrong, hoping to reunite with her four-year-old daughter. But the bridges Kenna burned are proving impossible to rebuild. Everyone in her daughter’s life is determined to shut Kenna out, no matter how hard she works to prove herself.

The only person who hasn’t closed the door on her completely is Ledger Ward, a local bar owner and one of the few remaining links to Kenna’s daughter. But if anyone were to discover how Ledger is slowly becoming an important part of Kenna’s life, both would risk losing the trust of everyone important to them.

The two form a connection despite the pressure surrounding them, but as their romance grows, so does the risk. Kenna must find a way to absolve the mistakes of her past in order to build a future out of hope and healing.

ARC Review | Return All by Eve Dangerfield

Pages: 286

Goodreads Rating: 3.80 / 5 stars

My Rating: 3 / 5 stars

Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance

Publication Date: December 14th 2021

Publisher: Eve Dangerfield Books

Synopsis:

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“Return All is one of my top reads of the year. Soooooo wickedly good. ” NYT bestselling author Annika Martin

“Nobody does Daddy kink quite like Eve Dangerfield. A fantastic read every time!” USA Today bestselling author Ainsley Booth

Hundreds of women have tried to win Derek Hardiman over, but the only girl he’s loved is nowhere to be found…
After ten years in the game Derek Hardiman has been crowned a football prodigy—but success came at the cost of his dorky high school sweetheart, Mara Temple.
A decade after she left town, he still can’t imagine marrying someone who isn’t her.

“Kink, heart, and sass all in one delightful package!” USA Today Bestseller, Amy Andrews.

Travelling for most of her twenties, Mara has returned home with a designer wardrobe, a sweet puppy and a new last name. What better to keep her surly ex-boyfriend from recognising her?

“Return All is the book you need right now. Deliciously dirty, sweet, and so real it hurts.” Adriana Anders, Award-winning author of Whiteout

When Mara and Derek are thrown back into each other’s lives the obsession that began when they were teenagers returns in full force.
Derek can hardly believe the goddess his once-awkward lover has become, and he’s determined win her back.
But Mara is determined not to give into the hype surrounding her bachelor superstar ex. Unfortunately, Derek Hardiman has always lived up to the hype. After all, a girl only has one daddy…
Return All is a standalone second chance romance by the critically acclaimed romance author Eve Dangerfield.

ARC Review | People We Meet on Vacation

Pages: 364

Goodreads Rating: 4.09 / 5 stars

My Rating: 4 / 5 stars

Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance

Publication Date: May 11th 2021

Publisher: Berkley Romance

Synopsis:

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Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?

From the New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read, a sparkling new novel that will leave you with the warm, hazy afterglow usually reserved for the best vacations.

Book Review | Death by Laura Thalassa

Pages: 519

Goodreads Rating: 4.41 / 5 stars

My Rating: 5/5 stars

Genre: New Adult Fantasy Romance, Post Apocalyptic

Publication Date: November 9th 2021

Publisher: Lavabrook Publishing LLC

Synopsis:

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They came to earth–Pestilence, War, Famine, Death–four horsemen riding their screaming steeds, racing to the corners of the world. Four horsemen with the power to destroy all of humanity. They came to earth, and they came to end us all.

He’s known by many names: Thanatos. Horseman. God’s last angel. And then, of course, there’s the one I’m all too familiar with—

Death.

The day Death comes to Lazarus Gaumond’s town and kills everyone in one fell swoop, the last thing he expects to see is a woman left alive and standing. But Lazarus has her own extraordinary gift: she cannot be killed—not by humans, not by the elements, not by Death himself.

She is the one soul Death doesn’t recognize. The one soul he cannot pry free from her flesh. Nor can he ignore the unsettling desire he has for her. Take her. He wants to, desperately. And the longer she tries to stop him from his killing spree, the stronger the desire becomes.

When Lazarus crosses paths with the three other horsemen, an unthinkable situation leads to a terrible deal: seduce Death, save the world. A hopeless task, made all the worse by the bad blood between her and Thanatos. But Death’s attraction to her is undeniable, and try though she might, Lazarus cannot stay away from that ancient, beautiful being and his dark embrace.

The end is here. Humankind is set to perish, and not even the horsemen can stop Death from fulfilling his final task.

Only Lazarus can.

ARC Review | The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

Pages: 352

Goodreads Rating: 4.46 / 5 stars

My Rating: 5 / 5 stars

Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance

Publication Date: September 14th 2021

Publisher: Berkley Romance

Synopsis:

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As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn’t believe in lasting romantic relationships–but her best friend does, and that’s what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.

That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor–and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford’s reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive’s career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding… six-pack abs.

Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.

Book Review | By A Thread by Lucy Score

Pages: 582

Goodreads Rating: 4.29 / 5 stars

My Rating: 4 / 5 stars

Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance, Romantic Comedy

Publication Date: April 23rd 2020

Publisher: That’s What She Said Publishing

Synopsis:

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Dominic was staring at me like he couldn’t decide whether to chop me into pieces or pull my hair and French kiss me.

Dominic
I got her fired. Okay, so I’d had a bad day and took it out on a bystander in a pizza shop. But there’s nothing innocent about Ally Morales. She proves that her first day of her new job… in my office… after being hired by my mother.

So maybe her colorful, annoying, inexplicably alluring personality brightens up the magazine’s offices that have felt like a prison for the past year. Maybe I like that she argues with me in front of the editorial staff. And maybe my after-hours fantasies are haunted by those brown eyes and that sharp tongue.

But that doesn’t mean that I’m going to be the next Russo man to take advantage of his position. I might be a second-generation asshole, but I am not my father.

She’s working herself to death at half a dozen dead-end jobs for some secret reason she doesn’t feel like sharing with me. And I’m going to fix it all. Don’t accuse me of caring. She’s nothing more than a puzzle to be solved. If I can get her to quit, I can finally peel away all those layers. Then I can go back to salvaging the family name and forget all about the dancing, beer-slinging brunette.

Ally
Ha. Hold my beer, Grumpy Grump Face.

Author’s Note: A steamy, swoony workplace romantic comedy with a grumpy boss hero determined to save the day and a plucky heroine who is starting to wonder if there might actually be a beating heart just beneath her boss’s sexy vests.