I may be a shy, lowly letter carrier, but when my beloved apartment building is threatened by a mysterious and reclusive billionaire, I’m willing to push the envelope. I’m going to march right up to Malcolm Blackberg’s fortress of fierceness and deliver a cease-and-desist notice he can’t refuse.

Except as soon as I get inside his gilded doors, things go sideways—I’m mistaken for Malcolm’s court-ordered emotional IQ coach, as if I’m acting out a wacky postal carrier cosplay.

They drag me in, a sacrificial lamb for the big bad. Make that big, smolderingly sexy bad.

So I make up a lesson involving a story about our building. He doesn’t seem happy. Can he tell that I have no idea what I'm doing?

Before I know it I’m flying around the country, up close and personality testing the most devilishly exasperating man I’ve ever met.

He’s scary for sure…but the way he sometimes looks at me turns my knees to jelly, and has me writing love letters to his gorgeous eyes, his mouthwatering smile, his impressive…package.

Our coaching sessions are getting hot-hot-hot, but I can’t let my guard down. If he ever finds out I’m a first-class fake, I’ll lose everything I’ve ever loved in this world!

Title: Return Billionaire to Sender
Author: Annika Martin
Series: Billionaires of Manhattan (Book 5)
Pages: 346
Genre(s): Contemporary, US, Billionaire Romance, Romantic Comedy, Romcom
Hot Buttons: n/a


Release Date: 20th October, 2020


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Absolutely adored it

5 stars

Oh. My. God. This book. Wow!

But let’s get the basics out the way before I start waxing lyrical about this amazing book! This is the 5th book in the Billionaires of Manhattan series. The books are connected as they all revolve around a group of friends from an apartment complex in NYC, but each book stands alone and has its own HEA.

Noelle is on a mission to save her building - due to be torn down by evil developer, Malcolm Blackberg. But Malcolm is ridiculously hard to get a meeting with - not that anyone would dare to meet the man face-to-face. So when a fortuitous set of circumstances grant Noelle an audience with Sir Grumps-a-lot, it seems like fate. Until Noelle realises Malcolm’s not who he pretends to be - all while she’s pretending she’s someone she’s not!

Noelle probably isn’t how you’d initially imagine a romance heroine - she’s shy, slightly dorky, rule-following mail carrier. But let me tell you she’s absolute perfection. It’s not just her loyalty, and determination to see the best in people, but the fact that she regularly pushes herself to do what needs to be done. Her internal pep-talks are all of us. But a lot of my love for her is in how Malcolm sees her. From the first, he sees something in Noelle that other people don’t - maybe even Noelle herself. It’s everything.

Malcolm himself is, well, the most gorgeous pain in the ass. He’s grumpy, he’s rude and he’s all business. Which makes it even more delicious that he’s so completely befuddled by Noelle and can’t understand what’s happening to him. There were times in the book where I was sure that Malcolm was FINALLY beginning to get some empathy only for him to prove me wrong. The change in him is so subtle as his relationship with Noelle progresses, that you barely even realise it’s happening. Ultimately, gruff, grumpy Malcolm just needs a big ol’ hug from the woman of his dreams.

The physical relationship between Malcolm and Noelle doesn’t happen immediately but it’s teased almost from the get-go. It’s back to Malcolm’s instant fascination with Noelle - and her little butterfly bow tie thingies. He’s obsessed and it’s hilarious! And the tension only gets stronger the more time our couple spend together. And with each different butterfly tie Noelle wears. So when it’s time - *happy sighs*.

It’s really towards the end of the book when everything really started to impact me. Those feels. Goddammit those feels. We’re waiting for that inevitable shoe to drop, just when Malcolm and Noelle are realising that they are ridiculously perfect for each other and have a connection neither can deny. I wanted to keep reading almost as much as I didn’t want to - because I knew what was coming and I wanted Noelle and Malcolm to stay in their happy bubble.

In the end, everything works out wonderfully - I mean of course it does. But on the way there, I found myself ugly crying, sniffling with delight and busting out a laugh every now and then. I had so much fun on this book journey.

Simply, I adored this book. One of the best books of 2020 - it lifted my spirits and made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Annika Martin has just been added to my auto-buy list and I cannot recommend this book enough. If you love the ‘grumpy one falls for the sunshine one’ trope with hijinks, shenanigans, sexiness and laughter thrown in - you will love this book as much as I did. 5 huge stars.

 

 

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AUTHOR BIO!

Annika Martin loves fun, dirty stories, hot heroes, and wild, dramatic everything. She enjoys hanging out in Minneapolis coffee shops with her writer husband, and also likes birdwatching at her bird feeder alongside her two stunningly photogenic cats, especially when she should be writing. She’s heavy into running, music, saving the planet, taking long baths, and consuming chocolate suckers. 

She’s worked a surprisingly large number of waitressing jobs, and has also worked in a plastics factory and the advertising trenches; her garden is total bee-friendly madness and her most unfavorite word is nosh or possibly fob. A NYT bestselling author, she has also written as RITA award-winning author Carolyn Crane.

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The first in the Campus Nights’ series, Secret Puck is a friends-to-lovers, brother's teammate romance!


Secretly hooking up with the team captain's sister was a bad idea.

Would I do it all over again?

In a heartbeat.

Title: Secret Puck
Author: Rebecca Jenshak
Series: Campus Nights (Book 1) 
Pages: 310
Genre(s): Contemporary, US, College Romance, Hockey Romance, New Adult, Sports Romance, Secret Romance, Brother's friend romance 
Hot Buttons: /

Release Date: 19th October, 2020

 

Likeable, young romance

3 stars

Rebecca Jenshak is a new to me author, despite having many of her books on my wishlist as a result of my newly discovered enjoyment of new adult romances.

This particular book is the first in a new series, Campus Nights, about a group of students at Valley University in Arizona. We get to meet lots of characters in this books - Ginny’s new friends and her brother’s (and Heath’s) teammates from the hockey team. Presumably some, if not all, of those characters will get future books in the series.

So, alongside all these characters, we get a lot of detail about the comings and goings of Ginny, Heath and their friends. And I mean a lo-ot of detail. Detail that, to my mind, wasn’t required for the story or for building the scene. Just bits and pieces of extra information that I didn’t know what to do with. It never slowed down the story, but I admit to being a bit confused by the need for such minutia.

Ginny was a nice-enough character, but she came across as a little needy to me. I know these are young people, but she seemed very immature and inexperienced in life. It was hard for me to root for her when I had nothing in common with her.

Similarly, Heath came across as a little young, and nothing like the kind of hero that I would swoon over. As much as I like a ‘forbidden’ romance, in this case, there was no reason for this to be so. If Ginny had told her brother where to go, if Heath had been a bit more adult about the whole thing - there would be no reason for sneaking around.

My main reason for the lower rating was that I just didn’t feel the connection between Ginny and Heath. Their first meeting was surprisingly lacklustre and suddenly we’re being told that there’s a crazy connection between the two. I must have missed that. And, sadly, continued to miss it.

This book certainly wasn’t bad. The writing was interesting and kept me reading, even if I couldn’t 100% get behind the characters or the story. Before I started reading NA romance, I feared that I wouldn’t feel any connection with the characters with this disparity in our ages. That’s how I felt with this book. It made me feel old and weary faced with excitable, impulsive college age kids.

It’s really difficult when you go to review a book only to find that everyone adored it - except you! It’s not that I hated this book, it just didn’t illicit any strong reactions or emotions in me, which made it a 3-star read. But if it takes your fancy, or you’re a fan of Rebecca Jenshak, then still give this book a go. I hope I’m just the exception that proves the rule!
 

 

 

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AUTHOR BIO!

 

Rebecca Jenshak is a self-proclaimed margarita addict, college basketball fanatic, and lover of the Hallmark channel. A Midwest native transplanted to the desert, she likes being outdoors (drinking on patios) and singing (in the shower) when she isn’t writing books about hot guys and the girls who love them.

 

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What do you do when your fake engagement starts to feel too real…

Aspiring clothes designer Victoria Scott spends her days working in a bar in Chelsea, and her evenings designing vintage clothes, dreaming of one day opening her own boutique. But these aspirations are under threat from the new department store opening at the end of her road. She needs a Christmas miracle, but one is not forthcoming.

Oliver Russell’s Christmas is not looking very festive right now. His family’s new London department store opening is behind schedule, and on top of that his interfering, if well meaning, mother is pressing him to introduce his girlfriend to her. A girlfriend who does not exist. He needs a diversion. Something to keep his mother from interfering while he focuses on the business.

When Oliver meets Victoria, he offers a proposition: pretend to be his girlfriend at the opening of his store and he will provide an opportunity for Victoria to showcase her designs. But what starts as a business arrangement soon becomes something more tempting, as the fake relationship starts to feel very real. But when secrets in Victoria’s past are exposed will Oliver walk away, or will they both follow their hearts and find what neither knew they were looking for…

Title: Meet Me in London
Author: Georgia Toffolo
Series: tbc
Pages: 320
Genre(s): Contemporary, UK, Christmas
Hot Buttons: Accident, Infertility

A sweet treat

4 stars


I am a fan of Made in Chelsea so am familiar with - and liked - Georgia Toffolo before knowing she’d written a book. However, if you’re not a fan of reality TV, or have no idea who Toff is, please don’t let that put you off. Ms Toffolo has always been a writer - the TV programme showing her when she worked at a popular ladies magazine. So her credentials aren’t just that she was previously on a reality show.

Anyway… onto the book.

This was super cute and a perfect Mills & Boon Christmas treat. The writing is fresh, fun and has the enthusiasm and excitement I’ve come to expect from Ms Toffolo. There is quite a lot of conversation and a lot of detail, but you never get bogged down or overwhelmed. In fact, it’s the myriad of little details that really draw a bigger picture of London at Christmas time. It’s clear that the author has a real love of London and all its nooks and crannies - especially fabric shops!

Victoria is a likeable character and felt real to me. She has lots of layers, including trauma in her past - but it’s never too much and never lets you feel sorry for her. She acts in ways true to how I think I would act if I was participating in a fake relationship - and was falling for my fake fiancé! Panic, fear and over-thinking everything, mainly!

Oliver was an equally delightful character. He’s frustrated with his life and the path that he’s on so the joy he finds in Victoria’s company is especially delightful. He’s like a hot, sexy geeky millionaire and such a decently nice guy. He was perfect for Victoria and the book as a whole.

As I mentioned, Victoria has gone through some trauma that has affected her outlook on life and love. While this is an important part of Victoria, and is ‘teased’ for a few chapters before finally revealed, it’s never too upsetting or angsty. And with the right man, her medical issues are not issues at all - a fact Oliver proves when he’s finally told.

There’s talk of it, but the sex in the book happens completely behind closed doors which definitely fit with the tone of the book. Seeing anything would have felt kind of wrong, somehow - so I’m pleased, for once, that there were no overt shenanigans!

One thing I will say is that I felt this read more like a new adult romance than a contemporary one. The characters are 28 and 31, if I recall correctly, and while Oliver was probably more believable as someone in his early 30s, Victoria’s position, outlook and overall demeanour definitely read, to me, as someone in their early 20s. This isn’t necessarily a criticism as I very much enjoy NA romances, but I felt happier once I adjusted their ages in my head!

Overal, this was a sweet, lively and readable Christmas romance that perfectly fits the Mills & Boon brand. Victoria’s friends appear quite heavily in this story, and seemed to have a close bond as a group. If Ms Toffolo writes stories for the rest of the friend group, I’m going to snap them right up. As a first book, this was a super sweet treat and one I would recommend if you enjoy a M&B tale. 4 stars.

 

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AUTHOR BIO!

Georgia “Toff” Toffolo is a British television personality, Instagram star and author. She is best known for appearing on the E4 reality show, Made in Chelsea, and winning the 17th series of ITV’s I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! She released her first book, Always Smiling in 2018 and signed a 4 book deal with Mills & Boon in 2020 to produce enchanting stories of love and enduring female friendship.

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