5 SMOOCHES!

SYNOPSIS:

Hands down, my favorite thing in the world is to score. Touchdowns.
Don’t let the fact that I’m the leading pick in the Most Valuable Playboy charity auction fool you. These days, I’m only a player on the field. I’ve kept my pants zipped all season long — and it has been long — because nothing’s more important than leading my team to victory every week. Except maybe escaping from the team owner’s recently-widowed and handsy-as-hell sister who’s dead set on winning more than a date with me.

Enter Violet and a well-placed Hail Mary.

She’s my best friend’s sister with a smile as sweet as cherry pie and a mind that runs quicker than the 40-yard-dash. After Violet saves the day with the highest bid, I don’t even give her a two-minute warning before I kiss her in front of the whole crowd and then announce that she’s my girlfriend. Which would be fine except my agent tells me we’ve got to keep up the act while he’s negotiating my contract.
Violet takes one for the team and pretends to be mine, but our boyfriend-girlfriend scrimmage quickly turns into a full contact sport, and I want it to go into overtime. The problem is — I’ve been riding the bench for years.

How can a guy like me, who finally has a chance to prove his worth on the field, convince the girl she’s most valuable to his heart?

MOST VALUABLE PLAYBOY is a brand new standalone sports romance written in the guy’s POV!

REVIEW:

There hasn’t been a single book written by Lauren Blakely that I’ve read that I haven’t loved. In my opinion, she’s one of the great contemporary romance authors. Romantic storytelling is this woman’s gift, that much is clear, but it is the genuine and authentic way in which she delivers an entirely male point-of-view story that never fails to impress me. I don’t know how she pulls it off, where she gets this incredible insight, but it is unique to Blakely and something that makes her writing truly special. So, if you haven’t read one of her books, well, you’re seriously missing out. It’s an easy fix, though, and a great place to start would be right here with this book, Most Valuable Playboy.

“The quarterback and the hometown girl…  The baller and the babe.”

While I enjoy a good sports romance, I’ll be honest, they aren’t one of my top favorite tropes. Blakely’s written two football romcoms – this one and Out of Bounds – that have not only become favorites of mine but have left me pining for more. Two of my favorite tropes, though, are a big brother’s best friend and friends-to-lovers, and Blakely’s blending of both tropes here was fantastic.

“She has to feel it, too. She has to know. She has to get it…This is two people meant to be together.”

Most Valuable Playboy was no quarterback bags the cheerleader story. This was a very sweet, unexpected romance between a guy who happens to be a quarterback and a female friend since childhood, who also happens to be the younger sister of his best friend. Cooper and Violet grew up together and had their own comfortable, easy friendship, though, and that formed a solid foundation for this pairing. A favor takes on a life of its own, and from it some undeniable chemistry and repressed feelings surge to the surface that neither had anticipated but both were unable to fight. Cooper was driven, focused, determined and confident, both on the field and in his pursuit of Violet. It was mesmerizing, and I was right there with her – weak-kneed, hammering heart and happily sighing – when he turned on the swoon.

“I think when you’ve been in love with someone your whole life, it’s just hard to imagine you’d be so lucky that he’d love you back.”

A Blakely romance isn’t one filled with pain, angst or drama–it’s the flipside of the coin. She pens love stories that are, cover-to-cover, an absolute pleasure to read. The kinds of books that you’re happy to start and that make you happier the more you read. That’s exactly what kind of book she gives her readers here in Most Valuable Playboy. I couldn’t help but cheer for the quarterback and the hometown girl.

I just didn’t want to put this book down. I devoured it with the kind of single-minded focus where you forget to eat, sleep or do pretty much anything but read the words on the page. I was completely caught up in Cooper and Violet’s love story, and I loved every single minute of it. Five smooches from me for Lauren Blakely’s Most Valuable Playboy!

~ Danielle Palumbo

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5 Smooches!

Synopsis

New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter returns with an irresistible Original Heartbreakers story about a woman who’s never felt desired and the man who wants her more than air to breathe…

Bullied in high school, Dorothea Mathis’s past is full of memories she’d rather forget. But there’s one she can’t seem to shake—her long-standing crush on former army ranger Daniel Porter. Now that the sexy bad boy has started using her inn as his personal playground, she should kick him out…but his every heated glance makes her want to join him instead.

Daniel returned to Strawberry Valley, Oklahoma, to care for his ailing father and burn off a little steam with no strings attached. Though he craves curvy Dorothea night and day, he’s as marred by his past as she is by hers. The more he desires her, the more he fears losing her.

But every sizzling encounter leaves him desperate for more, and soon Daniel must make a choice: take a chance on love or walk away forever.

REVIEW

Y’all!  My love for this series is so strong and it seems to me that every book I read further into the series just gets better and better.  This one was kind of a second chance romance.  Daniel and Dorothea were never together in high school but she sure idolized him and wanted him.  Being the nerdy girl, she never quite got his attention but years later and now Daniel is back in town and staying at the inn that Dorothea runs.  Only he’s hooking up with randoms there!

I REALLY REALLY loved this book.  Watching Dorothea come into her own and observing Daniel give into his feelings and acknowledge all that she means to him was so good!

I am absolutely in love with this series.  And this book was the best yet.  The sexual tension between these two was top notch and the sex scenes themselves were absolutely enthralling.  And the hilarity.  God, this book is broken up very nicely with extremely funny moments between emotional and angsty scenes.  Gena Showalter is one of my favorites in contemporary and paranormal romance.  Her books are in third person which often times I find hard to read as I don’t feel as connected to the characters but somehow this author makes me forget I’m not reading first person.  I’m too deep in the characters heads to care.  Another amazing book!

And can I just add that I am so very very excited for this next in the series.  I just know its going to be my new favorite.

~Amie

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5 Smooches

Synopsis

A single mom and tortured musician find common ground in Scarlett Cole’s Elliott Redeemed, the second standalone romance about the band Preload.

Elliot “Pyro” Dawson burns up the lead guitar like a legend. But the nickname Pyro isn’t just a clever play on words. It’s much darker. A past he’s fought like hell to overcome.

Grocery store cashier Kendalee Walker is at her wits end and homeless. She’s watched her fourteen-year-old son, Daniel, go so far off the rails, he can no longer see the tracks.

When the two are brought together, attraction flares, but can Elliott find the family he never had with the sexy woman and her son, or will he fall back on dark habits?

Review

I just love Scarlett Cole, I really do. Now, I am not a huge fan of “rocker” books but from the moment I met the Preload boys I fell hard for them. I know nothing about metal bands and the men who make them up. But this mix of foster brothers turned band mates is so appealing and full of depth it is impossible not to fall in love with each of them as their stories unravel.

Elliott is a damaged man, his stepdad growing up made it impossible for him to not turn out somewhat screwed up but since getting his life straight at the foster home he met his boys at he has held it all together. Kendalee is a Christian mother of a boy in the hospital when Elliott visits. Her son has faced the unthinkable and she has stood by his side. Despite the fact that she is ten years older than Elliott neither can deny the instant attraction they have nor the feelings they develop as they spend more time together.

This story was so original. My heart ached for each of the characters and I spent the whole time reading desperate to get to the part where they got their HEA. Each chapter gave us more insight into these complex characters and the writing made the story flow beautifully. It was sweet, super sexy, and sent me in to a tailspin of emotions. I definitely recommend this one!

~miranda

5 SMOOCHES!

SYNOPSIS:

Dr. Nick Raines wants nothing more than to keep his head on straight and his daughter in his life.

But does that really have to mean he can’t have love?

It’s a battle: Head vs. Heart.

REVIEW:

I have yet to read a book by the talented author duo that is Max Monroe that I haven’t enjoyed the heck out of. Always hilarious, their romantic comedies pack a one-two punch of steam and story. The third book in the St. Luke’s Docuseries, Dr. NEURO gives a shot at love to Dr. Nick Raines. Anyone who’s read Monroe’s Billionaire Bad Boys series will recall that Nick was the absentee baby-daddy to Scoring the Billionaire’s heroine, Winnie. Nick may have left a bad taste in a lot of readers’ mouths, but they need not worry. Max Monroe weaved their magic and gave Dr. Raines not only a chance for redemption—both on the pages in this book and in the hearts of the readers—but also a pretty sweet-happily-ever after to boot.

Superstar neurosurgeon Nick Raines is a pretty taciturn guy. Having learned what is truly important in life, he’s back in New York working hard at building a relationship with the daughter he left behind and, well, working. Those are pretty much his sole focus, and as a result, he hasn’t had much time for anything else, including dating. It isn’t until the infectiously effervescent Charlotte Hollis whips his world into a frenzy of fun, passion and love that Nick realizes that there is more to life.

A successful—and persistent—headhunter specializing in placing doctors in prestigious positions, Charlotte Hollis began her pursuit of Nick Raines as strictly professional. It didn’t take long, though, for that to shift as she sensed a kindred spirit in this man. Turns out, she was right, and as a woman with past failures of her own, she totally got where Nick was coming from. She was such a breath of fresh air in Nick’s otherwise sterile existence, and I loved the surprising ways she essentially forced him to have fun. These two characters were immediately attracted to each other, and the chemistry was a constant buzz around them. It was impossible not to root for this couple. While both of them individually were admittedly flawed, together they clicked right into place and their two halves made a perfect whole.

I know a lot of readers aren’t happy with Nick because of his history with his ex, Winnie, and their daughter, Lexi. But I found him to be endearingly humble, genuine and sincere in his desire to right those wrongs. He wanted desperately to make up for his past mistakes, and he was bound and determined not to mess up again. He was doing everything right this time around and giving his relationship with his daughter his all. But it was his budding romance with Charlotte that really opened up this character and made him an irresistible hero for me. Yes, he absolutely did Winnie and Lexi wrong, but his efforts to repair that damage were successful, and he more than earned this second chance.

Dr. NEURO was quintessential Max Monroe—a fantastic blend of sweet, sexy romance and the kind of laugh-out-loud, smiling ear-to-ear humor that readers have come crave this author. A fabulously executed, light-hearted pleasure to read, I positively devoured this book and loved every single word of it. Five smooches from me for Max Monroe’s Dr. NEURO.

~ Danielle Palumbo

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5 Smooches

Synopsis

Emerson just made her dream come true as a professional cheerleader for her favorite pro football team. But even though the plus-size athlete is breaking down boundaries, she still has to contend with the massive rulebook. Carbs? Nope. Chocolate? Definitely not. Still, Emerson loves her curves, and she’ll rock the hell out of this job even if it kills her. Except for one mandate that is easier read than done…

No fraternizing with the players.

Problem one is Miller Quinton: Emerson’s first love, first sex, and the guy who still ignites her daydreams and R-rated fantasies. Thrown back together, Miller and Emerson feel the undeniable pull of passion again, even if the conflict that tore them apart seems insurmountable. Then there’s way-too-sexy Grant Sanchez. He has a serious reputation with the ladies, and when it comes to winning someone he wants, he doesn’t let anyone stand in his way.

Now Emerson is breaking every rule in the manual. But what she doesn’t know is that she’s part of a wicked little game—one that could steal both her dream and her heart.

Review

Love triangles give me anxiety but a Rachel book is a Rachel book so I jumped into this one feet first. Of course Rachel gave me the book I never knew I wanted. I went into the book blind, and I hope if you are reading reviews you have finished the book and do so too. The story felt like a journey, and it’s one you should take without knowing where it will all end.

Rachel is a master at crafting and writing stories and more likely than not you already know that. I was unsure the first half of this story if it would be as good as I had hoped, mostly due to my  triangle phobia, but then the halfway point happened and I knew I was hooked. Fraternize was a sports romance full of the angst and drama I love.

This was an amazing story and I can’t wait to see what is coming next from Rachel Van Dyken.

~miranda