December Wrap Up

Happy New Year's Eve!!

This month I made a goal to only read Holiday books and I did that, except for one ARC - The Target.

I am still reading The Christmas Fix and will post my review soon. A lot of the 19 listed were novellas, and that is the only reason I was able to get through so many this month.

I hope you have a wonderful evening and I can't wait for what is in store for all of us in 2023!!

Merry Kissmas to Me by Jerica MacMillan

📚Review Time📚

Merry Kissmas to Me

By Jerica MacMillan

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🌶🌶🌶

Enemies to Lovers

Best Friends Brother

Small Town

Holiday

Great second book!! Loved Olivia and Ty's story. My favorite thing was how they both encouraged and uplifted each other to follow their dreams and not try to change the other person to fit into their world.

Olivia is lost and struggling to find purpose. After a break up with her college boyfriend and not getting the job she wanted after college, she gave up and went home. Now she is struggling to find her place. Enter Ty.

After a mistletoe kiss with Olivia last Christmas, Ty realized he just wasn't happy in his current relationship. After breaking up, he heads home to spend the holidays with his family to figure out what he wants.

There is no denying the electricity these two have, and I loved watching as their bickering turned into so much more!!

A Very Grumpy Christmas by Jerica MacMillan

📚Review Time📚

A Very Grumpy Christmas 

By Jerica MacMillan

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🌶🌶🌶

Small town

Friends to Lovers

Grumpy Sunshine

Holiday

Super cute book. It had me laughing crying and hot & bothered. Their attraction had a rocky start but once they gave in, man did it get heated.

After losing his parents in a car accident, Shane assumes guardianship of his 6 year old sister. Learning how to navigate her loss, his loss and the unexpected father role has him grumpy. 

Enter in Sarah the town elf. Her family owns and she runs the Christmas Emporium as well as run the Christmas Fest every year. She is also Shane and Sophie's neighbor. 

After hearing Sophie's heart felt wish to Santa, Sophie is determined to make this first Holiday without her parents a happy one, whether Shane wants her help or not.

Tis the Season for Revenge by Morgan Elizabeth

📚Review Time📚

'Tis the Season for Revenge

by Morgan Elizabeth

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🌶🌶🌶

Age Gap

Second Chance

Who hurt you?

Cute Holiday read. I really enjoyed the story line of rediscovering yourself after having lost yourself to someone else. Loved Damien who you could tell was lonely. Loved how he treated Abbie and helped to put her pieces back together without knowing all her back story. 

Abbie is dumped by on Halloween by her boyfriend of 4 years. She slowly realizes how much of herself she sacrificed to try and be good enough while hatching a revenge plan.

Enter Damien, Abbie's ex's boss. Matching up on a dating app felt like a sign so she decided to date her ex's boss to show her ex what he lost.

As they date and spend Holidays together their feelings become more than a good time and a revenge plan.

The Holiday Brothers Series by Willa Nash

📚Review Time📚

The Holiday Brothers Complete Series

By Willa Nash

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🌶🌶🌶

Small Town

This trio of holiday novellas really hit the spot with me. I did do individual reviews on Goodreads and Amazon, but decided to review here as the series since the stories are all written during the same time period but from the different points of view. (Genius IMHO)

📗Book One - Maddox & Nat

Single Dad, Nanny, Billionarie trope combo.

 

Love that they went to high school together, and they got a second chance when he decided to move home. It was a heart-wrenching story for his daughter and her relationship with her mom, but I loved how Nat could relate with her and was able to be a guide for her.

📕Book Two - Heath and Stella

Forbidden romance, work place romance, brother's best friend trope combo.

You could tell from book one that Heath was the lively and fun brother. And we first catch a glimpse of them together in book one when Nat walks in on them. 

It's the classic, I can't date you cuz you're my best friends sister, but secretly, they have been pining for each other. Finally giving in, they try and hide it, but then feelings get hurt. It's really well written.

📘Book Three - Tobias and Eva

Second Chance & Accidental pregnancy tropes.

College boyfriend/girlfriend ends badly with a refused proposal. Years later, they meet up and hook up for closure only to find out 6 weeks later (Christmas Eve) that she is pregnant. 

A lot of emotions in this one from both sides, but it was well written, and I loved how it ended.

The Mistletoe Bet By Maren Moore

📚Review Time📚

The Mistletoe Bet

By Maren Moore

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🌶🌶🌶

Small Town

Brother's Best Friend

Friends to Lovers

Holiday

Novella

Cute, cute story!! Quinn is not in the holiday spirit, and being home brings up dreaded feelings about her parents and their divorce. 

Parker Grant, her brothers best friend, makes a bet under the mistletoe that he can get her to fall in love with Christmas again. He spends the week showing her all the little things that she has forgotten about, and they act on their deep-rooted feelings for each other. 

The only complaint about the book was that I didn't want it to end. Loved that the curvy girl gets the hot guy.

Lost & Found in Copper Ridge by Harlow James

📚Review Time📚

Lost & Found in Copper Ridge

By Harlow James

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🌶🌶🌶🌶

Small Town

Forced Proximity 

Holiday

This was such a great book. Reese and Carson are both struggling but discover a friend first and then a lover. Their chemistry is amazing, and I love that Carson is ex-military.

Reese feels lost after calling off her wedding and losing a patient & friend to old age. Stopping for snacks, she receives a $5 bill with the name of a cabin in Copper Ridge and decides to book a vacation to honor her friend.

Carson also feels lost. Working too much and avoiding people as much as possible after his failed marriage and discharge from the Air Force. His grandmother books a vacation for him in the same cabin in Copper Ridge.

They both decide to share the cabin, which results in some funny and steamy situations. They both realize that they haven't been living but just going through the motions, and it takes the other person to help remind them of what is most important.

Dwar Santa By Kristen Granata

📚Review Time📚

Dear Santa

By Kristen Granata

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🌶🌶🌶

Fake Dating

Second Chances 

Mental Illness Representation 

Holiday

Novella

 

This was such a great  short story for the holidays. Christina hires a male escort to be her boyfriend for the holidays due to the strained relationship with her mother. 

Jake is a former rockstar who suffers from depression.  His story was so heartwarming and sad at the same time. As someone who suffers depression I was glad to see the representation and normalization of the mental illness. 

Christina is supposed to meet the escort at a dive bar, but Jake overhears what she is telling the bartender, and he pretends to be the escort, so he knows Christina will be safe.

Christmas in Quincy by Devney Perry

📚Review Time📚

Christmas in Quincy

By Devney Perry

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🌶🌶.5

Small Town

Forbidden Romance

Forced Proximity 

Holiday

Novella

This was a great short read. I loved reading the back story of Cleo and how her and Austin got together. It was short but still had the drama of a Forbidden romance and spice to make it a great read.

Austin owns a security company whose main client is Cleo's father. He is tasked to bring Cleo home from an impromptu trip for Christmas to Quincy, Montana.

Cleo is over having a body guard and dealing with her overprotective and overbearing father, so she leaves her bakery in the hands of her best friend and heads to Montana.

Austin can't act on his feelings for Cleo without getting his biggest client to terminate the contract, so he acts like he doesn't like her instead. This causes an enemies to lovers type feel, but Cleo has had a crush in Austin for years, and everything comes to a head in Montana.

The Woodsman by Dr. Rebecca Sharp

📚Review Time📚

The Woodsman

By Dr. Rebecca Sharp

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🌶🌶🌶.5

Forced Proximity 

Small Town

Second Chances

Holiday

This was such a great holiday read, and I can't wait to read more Kincade stories.

Violet comes to Friendship, Maine to escape her family and to try and recover from her severe panic attacks only to find her cabin was not really rented out by the owner but his sister.

Jaime is a family man who had to grow up quickly to help his single mother raise his brother and twin sisters. Always putting family first tends to be a lonely solitaire life until he walks in on a scantily clad Violet in his cabin. 

This was such a great storyline, and I am so glad that the panic attacks didn't magically disappear even when she was happy. It really shows what those of us with anxiety go thru. I can't wait to dive into Kits' story, which I hope comes soon with more about living with his PTSD and anxiety.

Tangled in Tinsel By Trilina Pucci

📚Review Time📚

Tangled in Tinsel

By Trilina Pucci

🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶

Forced Proximity 

Workplace Romance

Reverse Harem

Holiday 

Novella

This is my first Trilina Pucci book and oh my goodness I want more!! Especially about these characters!!

Samantha is an interior decorator who is decorating her boss' & his 3 partners cabin for a holiday party and they get snowed in for the weekend.

This story is super duper spicy but I also loved the romantic feel it had as well. Trilina was also inspired to leave the description of the female main character vague to allow readers to visualize themselves (if you choose) and it was genius!! 

It is a fun holiday novella with enough spice to set your Christmas tree on fire!! It is light hearted and funny. Their banter is perfection!!

Resting Scrooge Face by Meghan Quinn

📚 Review Time📚

Resting Scrooge Face

By Meghan Quinn

No 🌶

Small Town

Second Chance

Holiday

Novella

A short but fun Holiday read. Nola is thr sister of Ryot and Banner from Untying the Knot and living back home. A small Christmas loving town where her ex lives.

I love that Port Snow and the Knightly boys are in this novella. Grandma Lousie and Arden are two fun loving older meddling characters pass penpal letters between Nola and her ex Caleb but they dont know who they are writing to. I loved reading the letters.

Only complaint is it was too short. But it was funny, heart warming and just perfect for the season.

The Target by Lena Hendrix

📚 ARC Review Time📚

The Target

By Lena Hendrix

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🌶🌶🌶.5

Small Town

Forbidden Romance

Age Gap

Forced Proximity 

Second Chance

Friends to Lovers 

(Literally it has it all!!)

"You, my sweet girl, have always been more than enough. You just need to allow yourself to see it." Ma Brown

This quote reached out and grabbed me. To all the women who have ever felt not enough or unseen, Gemma  is our spirit animal!!

After meeting Gemma back in book one (The Badge) I instantly connected with her and I am so glad her story is now being told. Her and Scotty have a special place in my heart!

After Scotty up and leaves without a goodbye, he returns to escort Gemma to give her testimony for what happened four years prior. 

Their road trip opens old wounds, reintroduces old friends and old feelings get stirred. Secrets get exposed and danger lurks. This book has it all from beginning to end!!

November Update

 A few months back I shared that I found a note pad with a story that I started in the 1990's (and yes I have to put 19 before 90's as my children kept telling me it's not the 90's yet. **insert eye roll here**). Well after I transcribed the notepad to my laptop, I couldn't get the story and characters out of my head so on the 5th of November I started writing every day to silence the characters in my head. If you didn't know November is National Writers month, there is even an competition you can enter, which I didn't as I decided late to start. 

 

The note pad had right around 20k words, but needed a restructure, badly. So I got to work. As of last night I have just under 80k words in 29 chapters. I still have a few chapters to wrap up the book, but I didn't reach my goal to be finished by Nov 30th. But that's ok, I still consider this a win as I have been making myself come to work every day. 

Needless to say my reading other stories suffered, but I was able to read my ARC's and participate in a couple new release launches. Untying the Knot and 3 Count were the highlight reads of the month and both have made Top 10 for 2022. I will update with what other books I was able to sneak in but for the month of December I will be focusing on finishing my book and working to try and get it polished for publication at the beginning of March. 

I have a few ARC's in December I will be reading, The Target by Lena Hendrix being one of them. Other than that I plan on reading Holiday themed books like Resting Scrooge Face by Meghan Quinn. 

I am also participating in a silent auction for Project NENA. I have donated a set of my other novels signed and all proceeds go to project NENA. If you read Long Way Home by Melissa Grace you will remember that name. It is a nonprofit in Nashville that helps under-served communities in Northeast Nashville. The auction is called A Very Merry Bookish Gala and there are some amazing items that you can bid on.