Review: Divine Rivals - Book #1 Letters of Enchantment - Rebecca Ross - April 2023 When this series popped onto Instagram, it caught my attention as everyone was reading it. I then added the book to my wishlist and it was brought for me as an Instagram book gift. In this last part of 2023 and into 2024, I have started to get back into reading a bit of fantasy though of course it now has its terminology of "romantasy". Divine Rivals is historical meets fantasy but in a way could be set in a modern world but for me, it still held a strong historical feel to the book. The book starts with Iris's brother Forrest heading off to serve in the war to fight for Eden - one of the gods and goddesses who have just awoken after being in slumber for hundreds of years. The war is on between Eden and Dacre and is a War of the Gods but it's the humans who are suffering and fighting for their lives. Iris is working as a journalist alongside Roman and when tragedy strikes Iris's fa...

The Science of Attraction Jay Hogan (A Mackenzie Country Story, #3) Publication date: February 22nd 2024 Genres: Adult, Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance I am Mackenzie Country born and bred. Farming the high country runs in my blood, like my father, and his father, and my great grandfather before him. My future has been mapped out for me since the day I was born. Or at least it was, until Liam Skelton walks onto Lane Station, lights a fire in my heart, and turns my whole world upside down. Bossy, tatted, and out and proud, Liam is everything my father abhors. And I want him. Badly. But having a chance with Liam means risking everything. My family. My future. And my life in these mountains that I love. Still, the heart wants what it wants, and mine wants Liam. With so many things against us, maybe we don’t have a chance. Maybe we’ll crash and burn. Or maybe we’ll find a way to have it all. Goodreads / Amazon — EXCERPT: Julian Lane unsettled me in a way not many men ...

Review: Betting On You - Lynn Painter - November 2023 This book was the first one I had read of Lynn Painter's and I loved it as it reminded me of the "betting" movies of my late tweens/ early teen years where the popular guy made a bet that he could bed the female geeky character, only to fall head over heels with her and then of course the losing jerk, goes and ruins their HEA as he just proudly announces in front of the girl, that the guy won the bet. Like what a douchebag. On Instagram, a group of friends were doing a buddy read this month and since I had received an ARC copy from HarperCollins NZ, it was the perfect time to get stuck into it and give it a read. The book starts with our two main characters Charlie and Bailey meeting at the airport and then becoming seat buddies. They are both members of the Divorced Kids Club. Three months later, the pair meet again at the movies while Charlie is on a date with Becca and Bailey has Zach. The pair once go their separa...

Review: Principles of (E)motion - Sara Read - January 2024 Dr. Meg Brightwood is an amazing mathematician who has spent her life in her father's shadow, but she is far more academic than her dad is. The thing though is that Meg has panic attacks and presenting in front of others causes her to break down. When the pressure got too much, she escaped to live with her Aunt and when her Aunt got sick, she became her carer. While at the same time busy working on what was called "The Impossible Theorem". Finally, after 15 years, she has figured it out and solved the equation. This is the paper that will help her make history and a name for herself if only she has the confidence to present in front of a room. Families are a tricky thing though as everyone knows her father as this brilliant Professor, what happens when her father steals her research and tries to pass it off as her own? Can Meg with the help of her cousin and a fellow female academic, help Meg get back her research...

Title: The More I Hate Series: Gilded Decadence #1 Author: Zoe Blake & Alta Hensley writing as Blake Hensley Genre: Dark Billionaire Romance Tropes: Enemies to Lovers/Arranged Marriage Forced Proximity Release Date: February 23, 2024 BL URB His family dared to challenge mine, so I am going to ruin them… starting with stealing his bride. Only a cold-hearted villain would destroy an innocent bride's special day over a business deal gone bad… Which is why I choose this precise moment to disrupt New York High Society's most anticipated wedding of the season. As I am Luc Manwarring, II, billionaire heir to one of the most powerful families in the country, no one is brave enough to stop me. My revenge plan is deceptively simple: humiliate the groom, then blackmail the bride's family into coercing the bride into marrying me instead. My ruthless calculations do not anticipate my reluctant bride having so much fight and fire in her. At every opportunity, she resists m...

Review: To Cutting Me Open and Spilling Me Out - N.S Burton - 2024 I don't often read a lot of poetry, but when I do I have enjoyed it as some of my favorite verse authors/poets are Ellen Hopkins and Lang Leav.  Recently I read a poetry book called Atrophy that touched me and so when I saw on Sunny Babe PR that they had a poetry book to read, I jumped at the chance again this was amazing and a book that will resonate with every female who has a break-up with someone who we all thought was going to be "the one". The one guy who we thought we would have forever, the one we put all of our heart and soul into the relationship - the one who despite everything we were rewarded by having our hearts pulled from our chests and then the hearts stomped on and then placed back into our chests. The hurt was so strong, that we turned to a dark place, and for some like the poet, that meant self-harm by cutting. I never personally reached that level but I turned to eating less and havin...

Review: The Boy With The Bookstore - Sarah Echavarre Smith - September 2022 This book had me at the words "bookshop", The Boy with The Bookshop starts with two crushes and two shy people afraid to ask the other out. We have our Bookshop owner Max who every morning orders a coffee he hates but it's grown on him, just so that he can talk to the owner Joelle. Joelle is a shy Filipino who has dedicated her life to working at the bakery and helping her family with finances. She is all about family whereas that word is not in Max's vocabulary which will later cause tension in the story. The two work as they have their own spaces, but what happens when renovations to the building block cause them both to move into one building and share the space? Can the two work together in harmony and nurture their crush or will they discover that once they get into proximity to the other and their workspaces, they become frenemies and toxic? This part of them working together reminded me...