A Girl Like You by Samantha Chase

If you grow up in a small town, there are pluses and minuses. One of the minuses can be the long collective history when your childhood, and even recent adulthood are sprinkled with stories that don't put you in the best light. And Sam Westbrook really doesn't want to be in Magnolia Sound to begin with but his great-grandfather's legacy of a landscaping business comes with the condition that Sam stay for a year or Mason, Sam's cousin, gets the business.

Shelby Abbott is the only child of the local pastor. In books, being a PK (pastor's kid) means that you either run completely wild or live blamelessly. Shelby is the latter. In fact, she won't even tell her parents that she got Lasik because they have told her that eye surgery is linked to pride. She only lives a little wildly one night when she goes to a club out of town and literally runs into Sam... who doesn't recognize her. They do eventually figure out the case of mistaken identity and begin a relationship. But then one of them decides to make decisions for both of them and, sigh, that's one of my least favorite plot devices. Luckily it is short.

I wish we had seen more with Shelby's parents as well. They loomed large in a lot of the story and then we never saw how the issue with them was solved, we were just told it was.

Three stars
Follows Remind Me
Followed by In Case You Didn't Know
This book came out June 11th, 2019
Borrowed as ebook from the library
Opinions are my own

Smoke Bitten by Patricia Briggs

Mercy is worried about her mate bond. Her husband Adam has been distant and she's not sure why. But that comes in second when Underhill, the magical land of the fae who can take a human form, comes to visit. And with that visit, a dangerous fae escapes. One who can assume the form of any one or anything. It has already killed some of Mercy's friends and now it is coming for her. Because it can't control Mercy and it wants to know why.
I'm not sure I connected with the monster story in this one but I'm sort of okay with that because of the way we got to see Adam and Mercy's relationship build on itself as well as getting better glimpses into some of the characters that have been firmly B or C level before. I'm really excited to see where Briggs takes Wulfe (I think we got some glimpses in this book) and also hope that we will see some friendships building between Mercy, Aurielle and Honey.

Three stars
This book came out March 17th, 2020
Follows Storm Cursed

Followed by Soul Taken
Ebook from Library
Opinions are my own

Always a Bridesmaid by Cindi Madsen

7 times Violet Abrams has been in somebody else's wedding. Too bad her own blew up before she even walked down the aisle. Licking her wounds, she heads to the small town where her half-sister lives. Too bad her father and his wife also live there. The man who fathered her out of wedlock, that is. The town where she would go growing up but was never completely accepted. Violet just wants to help her sister fix up her bakery and then get out of town. Hopefully, doing so will help her get the mojo back that she lost (being a wedding photographer doesn't feel so good when you've just been dumped.) Yes, she's trying to burn her wedding book behind the bakery but she doesn't mean to set her pity cupcakes on fire.

Ford Maguire is on the fire crew (also trains search and rescue dogs and is an EMT.) When he responds to a fire at the bakery, he doesn't expect to find a woman that he's attracted to. And definitely not one that fits into his life so perfectly, enjoying and understanding his jobs as well as being able to hang out with all of his friends. But this can't be a relationship, can it?

It helps to have read the first book in this series but it's not necessary. Violet was a little too much of the stereotypical rom com heroine but this was still a fast and fun read.

Three and a half stars

This book comes out May 26th

Follows Just One of the Groomsmen

ARC kindly provided by Entangled Publishing, LLC and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Hideaway by Nora Roberts

Caitlyn "Cate" Sullivan comes from Hollywood royalty. Her great-grandfather, grandfather, her dad, her entire family are actors. She herself started acting at twenty-one months.  Now, at ten, the drama of the screen has become real life. Caitlyn has been kidnapped. She manages to free herself (already a kickass heroine!) and is helped by a boy named Dillon. Once she gets home, she helps unmask the people who plotted to get ten million dollars from the Sullivan family.
We get to see more of Cate as she grows up, decides against being an on-screen actress and eventually turning to voice acting. She returns, occasionally, to the estate she was kidnapped from and sees Dillon as he grows up too. By Part III of the book, they are both fully grown and heading toward a serious love. But someone from the past still blames them for the path that night took so long ago and believe revenge to be a dish best served cold.
I liked this ARC better on the second read. The third part is a little mushy on timeline that made it hard to follow and, on the second read, I didn't have to work so hard to figure it out. I gave it a second read because I think that part may be better edited before the book goes to print and I wanted to give it a fair shake.  Regular readers of Roberts will recognize her touches in this story and probably enjoy it as much as any of her other contemporary stand-alones. I still connected more with Abigail in The Witness or Fiona in The Search but the family ties in this book were what made it shine.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out May 26th
ARC kindly provided by Macmillan and Edelweiss

Opinions are my own

The Demigod Complex by Abigail Owen

Back in the day, Lyleia, a water nymph, refused a werewolf. He got super pissy about it and (long story short) he engineered the removal of her spring as well as her banishment from her family. These days she's the executive assistant to Castor Dioskouri who is a demigod son of Zeus. She's also in love with the man despite being hired specifically because she should have been able to avoid that fate.

Castor is in love with Leia and is trying to get her to figure that out, rather than quitting on him. So he asks her to attend a shifter mating ceremony. Hormones run high and he needs a shield against the women who would through themselves at him. 

Leia agrees to go but when an enemy from the past shows up, their budding relationship may be the only thing that saves her from certain death.

A fast and fun read. Didn't really get to know the characters much and I wish we had seen a little bit more of their relationship but I am excited to read the next book in the series.

Three stars

Followed by Shift Out of Luck

This book (2nd edition) came out February 17th, 2020

Borrowed from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own

The Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez

Sloan Monroe was introduced in "The Friend Zone." She was the best friend of the heroine and was engaged to be married. But at the end of the last book, her fiance was killed. Now, it is two years later and Sloan is still grieving the life, and the promise of a new life, that has been lost to her. She's on her way to the cemetery one day when a dog runs in front of her and then leaps into her car. The dog has a tag with a name and number. For two weeks, Sloan tries to get a hold of Tucker's owner but then decides to keep him.
Jason thought that the woman he was sort of seeing would take care of his dog. Mostly because she said she would. Instead, she took off for New York. Now Sloan has his dog. She isn't swayed that he is out of the country and won't tell him her address but she does reply back to his flirty texts.  And their conversations go back and forth with their alternating viewpoints on how the relationship is going.
Like The Friend Zone, this book starts off incredibly strong. Good relationship development is one of my catnips. Unfortunately, the slow build at the beginning of the book starts speeding up as we get to the back half. It's like going down a hill as they start moving faster and faster so, while we get to see some of the bumps in the relationship road, we miss more of the reasons that these two might make it to an HEA.

Three stars
Follows The Friend Zone
This book came out April 14th, 2020
Borrowed this as an ebook from the library
Opinions are my own

Remind Me by Samantha Chase

Mallory Westbrook had a hot and heavy affair with her great-grandfather's next-door neighbor, Jake Summerford. But it ended and then she overheard and misunderstood a conversation Jake and her great-grandfather were having about her.
Years later, she is back in town after a hurricane destroyed her great-grandfather's house as well as for his funeral. Jake now owns the house next door and he wants to help Mallory get through her grief. As well as maybe convince her to stay.
This was an okay book but a lot happened in a short time because it is a shorter story. I was alternately irritated with Mallory and wondering why we didn't get to know more of her. I'm still looking forward to the next book in the series because light and fluffy is just what I need right now.

Three stars
Followed by A Girl Like You
This book came out March 12th, 2019
Borrowed as ebook from the library
Opinions are my own