Early March ARC Round Up: Secret Heir Seduction, In Five Years, and Love Hard

I was abundantly blessed by Netgalley with March releases so I’m really pleased to be able to tell you about three early March releases and help you decide if they’re worth your hard earned dollars! Secret Heir Seduction by Reese Ryan already dropped on Sunday, March 3rd. In Five Years by Rebecca Serle is out on March 10th and so is Love Hard by Nalini Singh! I’ll give you a tiny spoiler for these reviews, which is that I loved Love Hard so hard. 🙂

Secret Heir Seduction by Reese Ryan out on March 1, 2020

Quick Plot Synopsis: Second chance romance between a couple who met and fell in love in grad school and then broke up for reasons and now have run into each other in Royal, Texas after Darius discovers that his biological dad was this really rich guy who is now dead and he has three half-siblings.

My Review: Star rating wise, I landed at about three stars. I really liked the family dynamics, but I wanted more of that (I know, it’s a category!), and I really liked the unique careers that Darius and Audra had. I liked, too, the sort of subtle commentary on class relations here. I think Ryan handled that with a deft touch and I appreciated it. There is a deception element here that was my main issue with the book because I just didn’t like the way it was handled, and more than that, I really hated that this villain character gets away with breaking the law because they have to deal with the bombshell news.

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle out on March 10, 2020

Quick Plot Synopsis: On the day Dannie gets engaged, she also interviews for her dream job and knows she nailed the interview. The night she gets engaged, she falls asleep and wakes up five years in the future with another man and in an apartment that’s not hers. When she wakes up again, she’s back in 2020 and doesn’t really know what to think. Her solution is to have one visit with a therapist and shove it out of her mind.

My Review: According to the note from the publisher, this book is really about friendship and, I mean, I kind of agree with that statement, but I also… do not. Bella, who is a really important character, doesn’t actually feel like a real person. She’s got flaws, so it’s not that she’s too perfect, it’s just like… Nothing in the book allowed me to understand why they’re friends. I wound up actually having a lot of issues with this book, but they’re mostly spoilers and I feel bad talking about those here because I don’t know how to make a spoiler tag, so if you want more details and content warnings, please check my Goodreads review.

Love Hard by Nalini Singh out on March 10, 2020

Quick Plot Synopsis: Love Hard picks up at Gabriel and Charlotte’s wedding, the couple from Rock Hard and we’re following Gabe’s younger brother, Jake, who is a single father who lost his high school sweetheart not long after Esme was born. He’s a little too serious, but he loves the people he lets into his life fiercely. We also follow Jules, who was Esme’s mom’s best friend before her death. She’s divorced from another famous superstar and the media is hateful, but she’s befriended Charlotte during a pastry class and between that and getting pulled back in a little by Jake, she finds herself relishing the new sensation of having people who are there for her and who will stand by her.

My Review: I loved this book so much, in case that wasn’t apparent from the way my quick plot synopsis told you so little of the actual plot and more about the characters and their personality traits that are my actual favorites. I can’t honestly tell you that the fact that we got to see Gabriel and Charlotte get married wasn’t one of the best moments I’ve ever seen in literature, but unlike in Tangle of Need, Nalini doesn’t actually let Gabe and Charlotte steal the show. Instead we get our cameos that are so important to me and they tell us not only about where Gabe and Charlotte are now, but also what Jake and Jules feel they’re missing themselves and also about their values. I think Nalini navigated this masterfully. I also absolutely adored the scene where Jake’s ability to love hard is referenced with those words. That little title drop!! Basically, I just loved this book so much and I’m sorry my review is not doing it justice. Oh, and if you’re wondering if you can read this as a standalone, don’t do it to yourself. Trust me, you want the experience of reading at minimum Rock Hard. Your time will not be wasted. 🙂

Have you or are you planning to read any of these? Let me know your thoughts below if so!

xx

4 responses to “Early March ARC Round Up: Secret Heir Seduction, In Five Years, and Love Hard”

  1. […] When I think of “Blank Space”, I think about the fact that Taylor wrote this song by creating a character based on how the media represented her. So when I think of my favorite lyric in the song, “grab your passport and my hand, I can make the bad guys good for a weekend,” I think about the way the media is really quick to create a malicious image of a woman regardless of what she does. Which leads me to my primary book choice for this song, Hate Crush. Hate Crush is about a princess who works so hard for her country and who the media and some people in positions of power are so quick to dismiss as a “slut” and vapid and shallow. Of course, Sofia is actually brilliant and utterly capable, something that she demonstrates repeatedly throughout this book. If she also happens to agree to fake date her ex who broke her heart… Well, at some point, you’ve got to kind of control your image, right? My secondary choice for this song is Love Hard by Nalini Singh because Juliet also has an issue with the media that she really does not deserve. Jake’s attempts to keep out of the media makes this a difficult pairing, but wow, y’all. So good. (Also if you loved You Had Me at Hola maybe pick up Love Hard and visa versa.) I have a review of each of these books up, if you’re interested in more: Hate Crush; Love Hard. […]

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