Books

Book 736: Romantic Renovations – Blake Allwood

I stumbled across Blake Allwood on the MM Romance Reader blog with their review of Love by Chance and thought I’d give him a chance (ha!). Allwood isn’t a five-star read for me yet, but there is a lot of potential. I will say though, if he doesn’t hire better developmental and copy editors and proofreaders he’ll never get there for me.

Rather than diving directly into the Chances series that MM Romance Reader reviewed I thought I’d start with a stand-alone. It didn’t hurt that this one was set on a home renovation show.

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Books

Book 730: Conventionally Yours (True Colors #1) – Annabeth Albert

I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing I let so much time pass between finishing this and writing this review. If I would’ve written this right after I finished it would’ve been effusive and glowing, but about a week later it’s much more measured (I think).

It’s no secret that I adore Albert’s books—seriously, I created an Annabeth Albert tag so it’s even easier for you to find them and I’m slowly working my way through her entire back list, but this one hasn’t stayed with me like some of her other series. Don’t be mistaken, I thoroughly enjoyed it and my adoration of Albert has not lessened, I think maybe it’s just matured.

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Books

Book 725: Squared Away (Out of Uniform #5) – Annabeth Albert

You didn’t really think I was going to go more than five books without reading an Annabeth Albert book, did you? Okay noob. (I’ve got jokes.) I actually got this from the library (digitally of course) before I started the last two books, but since those were both ARCs with early July publish dates I wanted to make sure I got to them first and this was my reward for finishing them.

This is the fifth installment in Albert’s Out of Uniform series and features Isaiah (Ike) who made his first cameos in At Attention (as a potential distracting love interest) and On Point (as a contentious one-night stand) and Mark/”Wizard”, yet another super-hot navy seal with all sorts of hang ups.

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ARC, Books

Book 724: Boyfriend Material (London Calling #1) – Alexis Hall

If this doesn’t overtake A.C. Rosen’s Camp as the book of the summer, I’m going to be so mad (but not really surprised). I honestly can’t even remember where I came across this, but when I did I immediately requested a copy from the publisher.* And boy, am I glad I did—it was so good.

I first read Hall’s work five years ago with Waiting for the Flood and could see the potential, but never followed up on my hunch only to be blindsided by this one! I could’ve been reading his work this whole time and growing with him. Needless to say, I will be going through his back catalog in the near future.

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ARC, Books

Book 249: Christmas Kitsch – Amy Lane

I didn’t have any expectations going in and overall I enjoyed it. It could’ve been better but it could also have been a lot worse. This was the last galley/ARC of my year and it was an endearing quick read. I received a copy from the publisher in return for my honest response; no compensation was received.

I tried to stay away from romance novels for so long but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed wallowing in them this past year. When I saw Christmas Kitsch I internally debated for quite a bit of time on whether I would read it and finally broke down and got it. I was hesitant because I always thought the super-specific holiday reads (i.e. Debbie Macomber) were super hokey even though I’d never read them. And I finally requested a copy while trekking through War and Peace, I figured a nice light fun read would be a great follow-up!

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