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I was fortunate enough to receive advanced copies of three of my most highly anticipated books of the year that came out either this past or this coming Tuesday and I’m so excited to share them with you! First we have Nalini Singh’s Kiss Hard, which is a truly fantastic installment in her Hard Play series and might(??) be the end of the series. Personally I’m crossing my fingers we’ll get a novel for Harlow though because he deserves love too! Then we have Book Lovers by Emily Henry, which includes a flight into AVL, which means, it’s basically set exactly where I live so I love it. And finally, we have Chloe Liese’s Everything for You, which delivered a grumpy/sunshine romance that I adored. So let’s talk about these a little more in depth, shall we?

Kiss Hard by Nalini Singh

The Bishop-Esera family is everything to me. Okay? This series has been a hit after a hit for me as a reader and I think that is due in large part to the fact that I love community in books and I adore seeing character’s grow together. This particular installment? Kiss Hard gives us Danny and Catie, characters we’ve known since Cherish Hard and now they’re both professional athletes, who are each dealing with things in their own way. They’re also frenemies, which is just utterly delightful. Their banter is fantastic. The way they would do anything for one another even whilst disliking one another is just a beautiful dynamic. Honestly, this book just presented such a unique relationship dynamic that I really want to know if there are more books with it? Because I think this is the first time I’ve read a relationship like this.

Oh! And there’s fake dating! I love fake dating. And then there is secret relationship, which I also tend to love. Basically, this book is soft with the right amount of internal angst I require to sustain the romantic tension and it presented me with such a glorious happily ever after that I cannot even begin to express my joy. And speaking of expressing joy: every single Charlotte and/or Gabriel snippet in here had me squealing and making just generally odd noises of ecstasy that it’s honestly such a good thing I live alone. This book had me sneaking pages every chance I could get. Like, when I say I loved it, y’all, I mean it. Also, the ending!! What an epilogue!

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

This book is not going to be for everyone. But if you loved Beach Read like I did and part of what you loved about it was how many feelings it gave you, I think you’ll like this one, mostly because I loved this one. I love books about sisters. I love books with that slight melancholic note throughout, especially when I know that in the end, all is well that ends well. And I love books where I really understand the connection between the love interests. I suppose I should actually tell you more about Book Lovers itself though. 

Nora is our protagonist and her sister, Libby, convinces her to semi-vacation for the month of August in a small town in North Carolina outside of Asheville. The two of them are very close because their mom died when Nora was 20 or so and Libby was a teenager. Nora has taken on a ton of responsibility for her sister and feels a lot of responsibility to make sure she has a good life. The best life. In this small town, Nora happens to run into Charlie Lastra, who is an editor that Nora doesn’t really have the best relationship with. The book has been marketed as rivals to lovers, but I don’t really think it behoves you to go in expecting that type of dynamic. They do have amazing text message exchanges and in person banter, but their relationship doesn’t really give me rival to lover feels. What it does give me is clear proof that these two people get one another and that they will go the distance. 

What this book really is though is a character study. Nora is competent and put together and really, really good at her job. She’s also slightly neurotic, anxious, and tires so hard to compartmentalize a lot of things out of an intense need for control. And Charlie falls for her exactly how she is. And he sees her. I think some people won’t like her because Nora is not a fun kind of messy. She’s a person you sometimes want to shake because some of her problems are self-created or a result of her not really communicating or setting boundaries, etc. But Nora felt very real to me. And her happy ending is perfectly suited to this story. 

Everything for You by Chloe Liese

 have loved the other four books in the Bergman Brothers series and I devoured season one and most of season two of Ted Lasso so it is genuinely no surprise that I find myself here now, having finished Everything for You trying to figure out how to put into words my love of this book. It’s just… the characters. They’re so well-developed and real and I just wanted to give them both a hug at various points. The community around them. Linnea is the most precious bean. To put it simply, Chloe Liese is utterly brilliant at writing characters who are dealing with loneliness and anxiety. 

This book is a grumpy x sunshine romance, but it really breaks down the sunshine aspect of Oliver and, y’all, it is good. So good. Also, just the Bergmans. Like, in general. I love them so much. I know that I’m supposed to deliver a coherent review because I literally requested this book so I could do that, but honestly, I just want to shout that this book is brilliant and Chloe Liese knocked it out of the park and I cannot give you coherency today. So… Anyway, highly recommend!

Please share with me your thoughts on any of these books you’ve read and if they’re books you want to read!

xx