#TBR #ToBeRead #ReadingList
I can’t tell you exactly when I fell in love with reading, but I’m sure glad I did! It has enabled me to travel to places I may never get to visit, put myself into the shoes of characters who are my opposite in personality/career/etc., and situations that I would ordinarily never experience. Reading truly opens entirely new worlds for me!
While you’ll typically find a romance novel in my hand, I love an assortment of other books including suspense, thrillers, mysteries, crime/procedural, and even the occasional non-fiction to learn more about this big world of ours. This month, I have another great selection of books that I’ll be featuring. I hope you’ll read through the blurbs of each one and find one to read or add to your own TBR list.
Holiday Queen | Claire Marti – February 2nd
Can a wrong number be the beginning of everything right?
Camille Taylor needs a partner for a charity scavenger hunt now that her cheating ex is history. When a sexy text from an intriguing stranger leads to a scorching cocktail date, she asks him to step in. Chemistry sizzles between them and Trent Bell is happy to play the hero now that fate sent him the most incredible woman he’s ever met. Can a wrong number be the beginning of everything right?
California Suits #3.5
Tropes:
Christmas Romance, Wrong Number/Text, Steamy Novella
Buy the Book: Amazon
Ride With Me | Dani Elias – February 2nd
Ryan:
I love my motorbike, and I’m a tattoo artist; both make me a rebel in the eyes of the villagers at Fellside. Especially the little spitfire running the shop next door gets her knickers in a twist whenever she sees me. It doesn’t help that I enjoy pushing her buttons whenever I can. I don’t let a snob like her take me down.
Jane:
I am usually a calm and collected person. I have to be when dealing with the rich and not-so-famous every day. But Ryan is just too infuriating for his own good. I swear he goes out of his way to get my backup. If only I could wipe that smirk off his pretty face. Did I say pretty? Forget I ever said that.
Tropes: Small Town, Enemies to Lovers
Buy the Book: Amazon
Turn of the Tides | Jessica Prince – February 5th
When Beau Wade left his small hometown of Whitecap, Oregon, he swore to himself he’d never go back. But when his NFL career goes up in smoke, that’s exactly what he finds himself doing.
Not much has changed in the ten years he’s been gone. Gossip still spreads through town like wildfire, Dropped Anchor is still the local’s favorite bar, and the woman he’s been secretly in love with most of his life still hates his guts.
Presley Fields is even more beautiful than he remembered. Her smile has the power to light up a room and that bubbly personality of hers is still as strong as ever. For everyone but Beau, anyway, and that’s the least he deserves for making her high school years a nightmare.
He isn’t the same stupid kid he was back then, and after watching her slip through his fingers too many times, the tides have finally turned in his favor. It’ll take a miracle, and every ounce of charm he has, but he’s determined to win her heart. And this time, he intends to keep it.
Tropes: Small Town, Enemies to Lovers, Opposites Attract, He Falls First
Buy the Book: Amazon
What Eyes Can’t See | Paulette Stout – February 6th
Barbara’s fairytale life has hit a brick wall. Worst part, she didn’t see it coming.
Barbara navigates the NYC corporate world as a confident Black lawyer, balancing sky-high career goals with heavy family expectations. But while her career thrives at 31, her engagement crumbles, leaving her heartbroken—and stuck with a non-refundable destination wedding.
Arriving at her island paradise, Barbara is swept away by Sebastian—a hazel-eyed lawyer with a snake tattoo and a mysterious past. Their deep connection makes Barbara feel seen for the first time in her life.
For Sebastian, time stops when he’s with Barbara. It doesn’t matter that she’s rich, and he grew up on food stamps. That her clothes are designer and his hide old gang tattoos. Even that he’s white, and she’s Black. None of their differences matter until he’s handed the job meant for her.
Jobless and stripped of her family’s wealth, Barbara digs deep to find herself and her voice. Suspecting she faced racial discrimination, Barbara challenges her boss in court. It’s a decision that puts Barbara and Sebastian on opposite sides of a battle they long to fight together.
As their love and convictions are put to the test, one crucial question remains, how much are they willing to risk to find justice?
Tropes: Spicy Romance, Women’s Fiction, Social Justice
Buy the Book: Amazon
Stay With Me | Brooke Montgomery – February 7th
I’ve crushed on my best friend’s brother for years.
He’s a six-foot-three, dark-haired cowboy who works on his family’s ranch and sends butterflies to my stomach anytime he looks at me. But he’s never made a move, so I need to get over it.
Except, when he reads a text message about me liking a mysterious guy, he snaps and demands answers. Little does he know, it’s my code name for him.
When he finally confesses he likes me too, I find out I’m pregnant. With my ex-boyfriend’s baby.
After spending three weeks together in secret, my world turns upside down when that little white stick reveals a positive sign from the one-night stand I had before him.
Now everything’s a mess and my life’s spiraling out of control.
I can’t expect him to date me anymore, so I insist we return to being friends. The last thing he needs is a girl who’s carrying another man’s baby and about to be a first-time mom.
But when my apartment gets broken into, and there’s a suspected criminal on the loose, he insists I move in with him to keep me safe.
Staying platonic proves to be harder with each passing day as he goes with me to my appointments, takes me baby shopping, and stocks the kitchen with all my weird cravings. He’s so involved that everyone assumes he’s the father. And I don’t correct them.
But the truth always comes out in a Southern small town.
Tropes: Best Friend’s Brother, Pregnancy (but not his!), Secret Dating, Forced Proximity
Buy the Book: Amazon
Ashes of You | Catherine Cowles – February 8th
Five years ago, I nearly lost everything. But there was a glimmer of hope on that darkest night. There was him—a stranger I could never forget.
Now, I’m finally getting the fresh start I’ve longed for. But when I show up to interview for a nanny position in the small mountain town, the single dad has startlingly familiar blue eyes.
Eyes that have haunted my dreams for the past five years.
Lawson Hartley is everything I know I can’t have. Older, handsome, and my boss. Not to mention the shadows in his eyes that tell me he has demons, too.
Still, he seems to understand me better than anyone I’ve ever met. So gentle and careful of my scars, yet somehow making me believe I’m stronger than I ever thought possible.
And when his lips touch mine, I’m lost.
We find what we’ve been missing in each other. But the terrors of my past aren’t done with me yet, and this time, Lawson might not be able to save me…
Tropes: Found Family, Touch Her and Die, Forced Proximity, Slow Burn, Single Dad, Nanny, Age Gap
Buy the Book: Amazon
Palm Springs King | Claire Marti – February 9th
A former rockstar. A perfectionistic yoga teacher. Opposites attract?
Rockstar Austin Michaels never took much seriously—other than his music. But tragedy thrust him out of the spotlight and into the boardroom. Now, he’s helping his brother run a luxury hotel chain and he couldn’t be farther out of his comfort zone. He’s doing his best––until his beautiful new spa manager arrives.
Yoga teacher Kenzie Banks earned her reputation as the best in the spa business by being a hyper-efficient perfectionist. Ready to plant roots after too many years on the road, she’s thrilled to land her dream job working for the Hotel Kings — they’re literally the family she always wished for. Except, her sexy boss Austin Michaels is driving her nuts with his impulsive decisions and smoldering glances.
The sparks between these two opposites burn so hot it’s a wonder they don’t spontaneously combust. But Kenzie knows what they say about fire…and she’s come too far and worked too hard to get burned. Can the pair find a way to work together, or will everything they’re building go up in flames?
Tropes: Opposites Attract, Forced Proximity
Buy the Book: Amazon
Beverly Hills King | Claire Marti – February 15th
A shy CPA. A sophisticated Parisian. They say opposites attract…
Accountant Lucas Sutton is comfortable taking charge, as long as he’s behind a computer screen. So opening the final luxury hotel for the Hotel Kings on time, and on budget, is way out of his comfort zone. He can’t afford a single distraction. A distraction like his intriguing, beautiful concierge.
Brigitte Thibaut flits around the globe, never finding a place to call home, until Beverly Hills starts to feel like something more. An innocent kiss with her strait-laced boss flames into white hot desire. Suddenly, they can’t stop thinking about each other. They’ve got nothing in common, except a tiny stubborn streak and a whole lot of chemistry.
The other Hotel Kings all found love on the job and they’re betting Lucas and Brigitte will, too. Can this pair prove that opposites really do attract, or will they let their differences divide them after all?
Tropes: Opposites Attract, Shy Hero, He Falls First, Sophisticated Heroine
Buy the Book: Amazon
One Wrong Move – Dani Pettrey – February 16th
Taunting riddles.
A deadly string of heists.
Two broken hearts trapped in a killer’s game.
Christian O’Brady was pulled into a life of crime at a young age by his con artist parents. Now making amends for his corrupt past, he has become one of the country’s foremost security experts. When a string of Southwestern art heists targets one of the galleries Christian secured, he is paired up with a gifted insurance investigator who has her own checkered past.
Andi Forester was a brilliant FBI forensic analyst until one of her colleagues destroyed her career, blaming her for mishandling evidence. She now puts those skills to work investigating insurance fraud, and this latest high-stakes case will test her gift to the limit. Drawn deep into a dangerous game with an opponent bent on revenge, Christian and Andi are in a race against the clock to catch him, but the perpetrator’s game is far from finished, and one wrong move could be the death of them both.
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Buy the Book: Amazon
When Hearts Ignite | Victoria Lum – February 21st
A cold-hearted billionaire, a fiery intern, and a forbidden love that defies the odds.
He’s the King of Wall Street—cold, methodical, unemotional. Steven Kingsley is the glorious falcon soaring far above me.
I’m the poor, lowly intern—a small fish in this cutthroat ocean of finance, struggling to keep my head above water.
The falcon and the fish were never meant to fall in love. After all, his heart is made of ice, and life has taught me rich men cannot be trusted.
But my body craves him, my heart ignites for him, and from his heated stares and maddening touches, I wonder if perhaps he feels the same.
Until one day, the unimaginable happens, and I disappear from his life. I’ve had to become someone I never thought I’d be in order to survive.
That is, until he finds me.
The cold king is intent on saving me, and this time, he isn’t letting go. Our wills collide, an inferno blazes, but our devastating secrets get in the way.
Can the fish and the falcon find a way to be together? Or is our love doomed from the start?
Tropes: Boss/Employee, Billionaire, Angst, Tortured Hero, Good Girl, Forbidden
Buy the Book: Amazon
Missing Before Daylight | Carolyn Arnold – February 22nd
She wakes surrounded by an inky black darkness and can barely breathe. A sack is covering her head, and her hands are tied behind her back. She desperately tries to struggle free as she hears footsteps walking toward her. She silently starts to cry as a chilling voice whispers “It’s time to pay for what you did…”
When Detective Amanda Steele is called to the murder scene of a young gas station clerk just before dawn, she assumes it must be a robbery gone tragically wrong. But when she discovers nothing has been stolen, she knows the motive must be far more personal.
Watching the security footage, Amanda is shocked to witness the cold-blooded killer not only shoot the clerk dead but abduct a customer. And her heart stops when she recognizes the customer as her former colleague, Katherine Graves. As Amanda breaks the news to Katherine’s heartbroken Aunt May, she vows to do whatever it takes to bring her niece home alive.
Desperate for a lead, Amanda and her partner, Trent, search Katherine’s home. Soon, they discover that despite no longer being with the police department, Katherine has a long list of very dangerous enemies. Enemies who have been sending her anonymous letters promising revenge.
The more Amanda digs into Katherine’s past, the longer her list of suspects becomes. But when May is sent a ransom demand and a picture of Katherine close to death, Amanda knows time is running out. With only hours left to find Katherine alive, Amanda is prepared to risk everything to keep her promise to May, even her own life…
Genre: Crime Thriller, Procedural
Buy the Book: Amazon
